Oppenheimer Raises AT&T (NYSE:T) Price Target to $24.00

AT&T (NYSE:T) had its price objective upped by Oppenheimer from $23.00 to $24.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on T. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on AT&T in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.40.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE:T opened at $21.83 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.13. The company has a market cap of $156.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.60. AT&T has a 52 week low of $14.74 and a 52 week high of $22.58.

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. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.08%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.68%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $270,581,000 after purchasing an additional 13,201,774 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 43.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 22.0% during the second quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $477,528,000 after purchasing an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the second quarter valued at approximately $78,570,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.