AT&T (NYSE:T) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

AT&T (NYSE:T) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on T. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet upgraded AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Scotiabank increased their target price on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Performance

T opened at $16.82 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $120.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T has a 52-week low of $13.43 and a 52-week high of $18.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.68. The business’s fifty day moving average is $16.97 and its 200-day moving average is $16.62.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. AT&T’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that AT&T will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. First Pacific Financial lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 166.7% in the first quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 1,600 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 16,250.0% in the third quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lipe & Dalton bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

About AT&T

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.