AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 0.8% Higher – Time to Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price was up 0.8% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $24.55 and last traded at $24.64. Approximately 5,221,765 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 37,527,152 shares. The stock had previously closed at $24.45.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.21.

AT&T Stock Up 0.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market capitalization of $176.19 billion, a PE ratio of 16.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.77.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. On average, research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.52%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 valued at $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,057,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,208,123,000 after purchasing an additional 414,984 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in AT&T by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 33,963,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $753,318,000 after acquiring an additional 5,614,168 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.