AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $30.2396.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on T shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on AT&T from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp raised shares of AT&T from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of AT&T from $33.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 19th.

AT&T Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of T stock opened at $24.47 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $173.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.94, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a 50 day moving average of $25.16 and a 200-day moving average of $27.08. AT&T has a 12-month low of $21.38 and a 12-month high of $29.79.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 17.87%.The business had revenue of $30.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 12th. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 36.04%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Denali Advisors LLC grew its position in AT&T by 5.9% in the second quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 401,037 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,606,000 after acquiring an additional 22,394 shares in the last quarter. Tredje AP fonden lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.8% during the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,221,395 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,347,000 after buying an additional 21,720 shares during the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in AT&T by 1.5% during the second quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 324,104 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,380,000 after acquiring an additional 4,793 shares during the period. Kickstand Ventures LLC. acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the 2nd quarter valued at $489,000. Finally, Sentry Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 153.2% during the second quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 22,095 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 13,370 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc is a global telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and digital entertainment services. Its core activities include consumer and business wireless services, broadband and fiber internet, and network infrastructure. The company operates branded wireless services through AT&T Mobility and deploys fixed-line and fiber networks to deliver high-speed internet and related home services.

AT&T’s product and service portfolio spans mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and device sales, home internet (including fiber-to-the-home where available), and managed connectivity solutions for enterprise customers.