AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Up 0.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s share price rose 0.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $30.00 to $32.00. Tigress Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. AT&T traded as high as $24.58 and last traded at $24.43. Approximately 5,454,262 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 38,454,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $24.25.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.21.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in AT&T by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149,688 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank raised its position in AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,467,000 after purchasing an additional 325,073 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Stock Up 0.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $175.63 billion, a PE ratio of 16.43, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $22.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.73.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.53%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

About AT&T

AT&T, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of telecommunications and technology services. It operates through the Communications and Latin America segments. The Communications segment offers wireless, wireline telecom, and broadband services to businesses and consumers located in the US and businesses globally.