AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Price Up 1.3% on Analyst Upgrade

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares traded up 1.3% on Friday after StockNews.com upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The company traded as high as $16.82 and last traded at $16.80. 11,143,754 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 39,059,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.58.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $17.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,443,980,000 after buying an additional 2,155,232 shares during the period. Newport Trust Company LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 0.3% in the 3rd 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in AT&T by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,328,528,000 after buying an additional 4,014,873 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,128,878,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828,237 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.01, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $16.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.57.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

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.