AT&T (NYSE:T) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AT&T (NYSE:T) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday.

T has been the subject of several other reports. Williams Trading set a $33.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. HSBC lowered shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Scotiabank set a $30.25 price target on AT&T and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.67.

AT&T Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE T traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $24.81. 62,407,693 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 39,882,633. AT&T has a 52 week low of $21.38 and a 52 week high of $29.79. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.62. The company has a market cap of $175.85 billion, a PE ratio of 8.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.54. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 17.87%.The firm had revenue of $30.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AT&T will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.5%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 36.04%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of T. Denali Advisors LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 401,037 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,606,000 after purchasing an additional 22,394 shares during the period. Tredje AP fonden raised its position in AT&T by 1.8% in the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,221,395 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,347,000 after purchasing an additional 21,720 shares during the period. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.5% during the second quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 324,104 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,380,000 after purchasing an additional 4,793 shares in the last quarter. Kickstand Ventures LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the second quarter worth about $489,000. Finally, Sentry Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 153.2% in the second quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 22,095 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 13,370 shares during the period. 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.