KT (NYSE:KT) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

KT (NYSE:KT) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on KT. Wall Street Zen cut shares of KT from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. Bank of America lowered shares of KT from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.08 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of KT from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.08.

KT Stock Performance

KT stock opened at $19.59 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.49. KT has a 1-year low of $17.54 and a 1-year high of $24.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market cap of $9.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.61 and a beta of 0.59.

KT (NYSE:KT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 13th. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.02). KT had a net margin of 6.15% and a return on equity of 9.21%. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.69 billion. On average, analysts expect that KT will post 2.06 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KT

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in KT. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KT by 4,148.2% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 530,817 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,401,000 after acquiring an additional 518,322 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KT by 107.9% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 242,212 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,290,000 after acquiring an additional 125,702 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KT by 39.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 280,713 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,474,000 after acquiring an additional 79,891 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund acquired a new stake in KT during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,526,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in KT during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,190,000. 18.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

KT Company Profile

KT Corporation, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as an American depositary receipt under the symbol KT, is a major telecommunications and information technology provider headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea. The company’s services span traditional fixed-line voice communication, high-speed broadband internet access and mobile cellular networks. Leveraging an extensive fiber-optic and wireless infrastructure, KT delivers voice, data and multimedia solutions to both consumer and enterprise customers.

KT has been at the forefront of technological innovation in its home market, launching South Korea’s first commercial 5G network and expanding its offerings to include Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, cloud computing services and cybersecurity solutions.