AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Up 1.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares shot up 1.3% on Friday after StockNews.com upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The company traded as high as $16.82 and last traded at $16.80. 11,143,754 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 39,059,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.58.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on T. Wolfe Research raised AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Oppenheimer raised AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet raised shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in T. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in AT&T during the first quarter worth approximately $1,543,000. TI Trust Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 149.5% during the 1st quarter. TI Trust Inc. now owns 34,711 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 20,797 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in AT&T by 24.8% during the 1st quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103,048 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,814,000 after acquiring an additional 20,454 shares in the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 6.8% in the first quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 48,627 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $856,000 after acquiring an additional 3,095 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 3.5% in the first quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 38,897 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $120.45 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.57.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The firm’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

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.