AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 0.9% – Should You Buy?

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shot up 0.9% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $26.87 and last traded at $26.63. 7,982,136 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 36,838,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $26.39.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.50 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.24.

AT&T Stock Up 1.5 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $192.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.97.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.