AT&T Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:T)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 91,290 call options on the company. This is an increase of 56% compared to the typical daily volume of 58,654 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $1,118,288,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 185.6% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $790,301,000 after acquiring an additional 34,189,954 shares during the period. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $316,472,000. Kodai Capital Management LP bought a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $152,109,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in AT&T by 120.8% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,086,854 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $152,477,000 after acquiring an additional 4,970,954 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE T opened at $19.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $137.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.18. AT&T has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $19.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AT&T will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.81%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research note 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 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.71.

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.