AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 0.7% – Here’s What Happened

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price shot up 0.7% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $22.31 and last traded at $22.20. 9,207,653 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 35,564,848 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.05.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on T. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays raised their target price on AT&T from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.40.

AT&T Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.15 billion, a PE ratio of 18.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 90.24%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after acquiring an additional 13,201,774 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 43.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 22.0% in the second quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $477,528,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the second quarter worth $78,570,000. Hedge funds and other 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.