AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Up 1.5% – What’s Next?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price shot up 1.5% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $22.41 and last traded at $22.37. 5,861,197 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 35,515,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.04.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on T. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.40.

AT&T Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $21.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.46. The stock has a market cap of $160.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. Analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 90.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Duality Advisers LP grew its stake in AT&T by 119.3% in the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 80,525 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 43,800 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 32.0% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 101,042 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,778,000 after acquiring an additional 24,504 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in AT&T during the first quarter worth about $254,000. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in AT&T by 12.1% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 149,091 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,624,000 after purchasing an additional 16,083 shares during the period. Finally, PFG Advisors increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 32.9% during the first quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 40,745 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $717,000 after purchasing an additional 10,096 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About AT&T

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.