AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 1.3% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price shot up 1.3% on Friday after StockNews.com upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The company traded as high as $16.82 and last traded at $16.80. 11,143,754 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 39,059,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.58.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.81.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in T. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 130.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter worth about $316,472,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $519,070,000 after buying an additional 9,518,478 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Trading Up 1.6 %

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 has a market capitalization of $120.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $16.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.54.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.68%.

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.