AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 1.5% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) traded up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Monday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $26.00 to $28.50. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. AT&T traded as high as $27.86 and last traded at $27.82. 13,823,023 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 39,013,465 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.41.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on T. New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.45.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,719,723,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,644 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after purchasing an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Trading Up 1.2 %

The company has a market cap of $199.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.61, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $23.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.58.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.50%.

AT&T Company Profile

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.