AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 0.1% Higher

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price was up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $16.46 and last traded at $16.44. Approximately 8,039,722 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 37,997,188 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on T shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.68.

AT&T Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $116.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.57. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.46.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.01). AT&T had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 11.76%. The company had revenue of $32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.81%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,443,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,155,232 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.5% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 287,304,512 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,530,602,000 after buying an additional 1,567,008 shares during the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.3% in the third quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,003,971,000 after buying an additional 673,043 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,018,462,000 after buying an additional 29,769,976 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 85,003.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,414,568,000 after buying an additional 76,746,649 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.