AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Down 0.5%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares traded down 0.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $16.38 and last traded at $16.42. 28,451,332 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 38,716,324 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.50.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer raised AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. StockNews.com raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $118.63 billion, a PE ratio of 8.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.54.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,443,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,155,232 shares during the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC increased its position in shares of AT&T by 0.3% in the third quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,003,971,000 after purchasing an additional 673,043 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in AT&T by 5.6% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 4,014,873 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in AT&T by 2.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,128,878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,828,237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,118,288,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.