AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Down 1.5% Following Analyst Downgrade

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price was down 1.5% on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $25.00 to $24.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AT&T traded as low as $22.08 and last traded at $22.16. Approximately 7,099,967 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 35,607,207 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.49.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI raised their price target on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.40.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in T. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AT&T by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in AT&T by 7.4% during the 2nd 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. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after buying an additional 1,569,374 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after buying an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $575,070,000 after buying an additional 315,580 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $156.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.15 and a 200-day moving average of $19.08.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

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