AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Price Up 0.2%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s share price shot up 0.2% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $19.99 and last traded at $19.51. 16,481,945 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 36,660,969 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Daiwa America raised shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.33.

AT&T Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $18.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.53 billion, a PE ratio of 10.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.57. The firm had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.75%. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,999,912,000 after acquiring an additional 2,588,539 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $848,888,000 after buying an additional 798,024 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in AT&T by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $794,978,000 after buying an additional 1,137,792 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

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.