AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 2.5% – Still a Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) rose 2.5% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as high as $21.59 and last traded at $21.45. 52,117,458 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 6% from the average daily volume of 48,985,191 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.92.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the topic of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of AT&T from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, September 21st. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $33.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $29.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.55.

AT&T Trading Up 2.5%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $144.50 billion, a PE ratio of 11.59, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.25.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $32.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.69 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 13.41%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 4.5% in the first quarter. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,105 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the period. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. now owns 76,978 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,593,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. grew its position in shares of AT&T by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 11,901 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.4% in the first quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 97,209 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,818,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Welch & Forbes LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 133,287 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,864,000 after buying an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and related connectivity services. Its offerings include mobile voice and data plans, internet access, fiber broadband, fixed wireless services, and business communications solutions.

The company serves consumers, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations primarily in the United States. AT&T’s business operations include wireless network services, wireline connectivity, fiber-optic internet, voice services, and networking solutions designed to connect locations, devices, and applications.

AT&T traces its history to the Bell System and has operated under its current corporate name since 2005, following the acquisition of AT&T Corp.