AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 1% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shot up 1% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $25.93 and last traded at $25.88. 31,683,390 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 18% from the average session volume of 38,630,956 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.63.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on T. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.33.

AT&T Trading Up 0.6 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $23.33 and a 200-day moving average of $22.17. 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 market cap of $188.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.23%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in T. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,858,418,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% during the fourth 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 period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 31.8% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 12,881,578 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 78,148,354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,779,438,000 after purchasing an additional 10,945,679 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 4,986.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $225,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,719,036 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Company Profile

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.