AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Down 6.3% – Here’s What Happened

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares traded down 6.3% on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $21.79 and last traded at $21.9460. 83,760,235 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 72% from the average session volume of 48,592,676 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.42.

AT&T News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting AT&T this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AT&T reported third-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.65 and revenue of $32.3 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations. Revenue increased approximately 5.2% year over year. AT&T Q3 earnings and revenues top estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its 2026 adjusted EPS outlook to about $2.40 and reiterated its long-term growth outlook, while accelerating share repurchases and returning approximately $4.8 billion to shareholders during the quarter. AT&T third-quarter results
• Positive Sentiment: Operating momentum remained solid: AT&T added a record 769,000 internet customers, including 442,000 fiber additions and 327,000 fixed-wireless additions, while adding 379,000 postpaid phone customers. Advanced Connectivity service revenue rose 6.1%. AT&T revenue rises in third quarter
• Neutral Sentiment: AT&T plans to reduce annual capital investment to roughly $22 billion-$23 billion in 2027 and 2028, including a $1 billion reduction in fiber investment. This could improve cash flow, but investors may question whether lower spending slows growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are increasingly concerned about competition from SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile satellite service. The potential threat could force AT&T and other carriers to increase customer incentives or spending, even though CEO John Stankey said low-Earth-orbit networks are primarily useful for rural coverage. AT&T stock and SpaceX competition
• Negative Sentiment: Balance-sheet pressure overshadowed the improved outlook. Net debt rose to approximately $149.8 billion after the EchoStar spectrum transaction, and management now expects to return to its 2.5-times net-debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA target during 2029.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported results included a $2.6 billion non-cash impairment charge related to AT&T’s held-for-sale Mexico wireless business, weighing on net income and adding to investor concerns about the quality of reported profit.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. TD Cowen boosted their price target on AT&T from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays decreased their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $29.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of AT&T from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.05.

AT&T Trading Down 6.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.33. The company has a market cap of $150.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.25.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $32.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.69 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.86% and a net margin of 16.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, October 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.75%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Addison Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in AT&T in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Robinswood Financial LLC bought a new position in AT&T in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co grew its position in AT&T by 331.8% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 1,494 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and related connectivity services. Its offerings include mobile voice and data plans, internet access, fiber broadband, fixed wireless services, and business communications solutions.

The company serves consumers, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations primarily in the United States. AT&T’s business operations include wireless network services, wireline connectivity, fiber-optic internet, voice services, and networking solutions designed to connect locations, devices, and applications.

AT&T traces its history to the Bell System and has operated under its current corporate name since 2005, following the acquisition of AT&T Corp.