AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Up 2.1% – What’s Next?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares traded up 2.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $22.09 and last traded at $21.96. 12,949,579 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 35,458,547 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.50.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Tigress Financial upped their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on AT&T from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup boosted their price target on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Scotiabank cut AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.69.

AT&T Stock Up 4.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.60.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. The company had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 63.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,588,539 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% during the second 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 buying an additional 5,592,123 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of AT&T by 1.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $575,070,000 after purchasing an additional 315,580 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.