AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 1% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shot up 1% on Monday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $29.50 to $30.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. AT&T traded as high as $27.51 and last traded at $27.24. 8,253,080 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 36,401,821 shares. The stock had previously closed at $26.97.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on T. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on AT&T from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on AT&T from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays lifted their price objective on AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of T. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,266,758,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 1st quarter valued at $1,072,128,000. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 37.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 26,280,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 53,432,827 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,216,665,000 after acquiring an additional 12,881,578 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Up 0.7%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.38. The company has a market cap of $195.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.67, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.70.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 9.64% and a return on equity of 13.63%. The business had revenue of $30.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.10%.

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.