AT&T (NYSE:T) Rating Increased to Buy at Argus

Argus upgraded shares of AT&T (NYSE:T) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Argus currently has $27.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on T. Tigress Financial upped their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $22.02 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $157.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $22.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.28. AT&T has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.04%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in T. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in AT&T by 110.3% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,155,046 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $117,623,000 after acquiring an additional 3,228,888 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in AT&T by 1,901.0% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,166,814 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,008,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

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.