AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation, thirteen have assigned a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $25.76.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Barclays boosted their price target on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th.

AT&T Price Performance

T opened at $22.20 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $159.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.05, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. AT&T has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $24.03. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.17.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 90.24%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of 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. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 2.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 28,113,880 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $537,256,000 after buying an additional 675,082 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.