AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 1.3% – Time to Buy?

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) were up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $27.87 and last traded at $27.84. Approximately 6,888,739 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 36,295,584 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on T shares. Williams Trading set a $30.00 price objective on AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.71.

AT&T Trading Up 1.5 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $200.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.39 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.98%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 651,044,650 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $18,411,543,000 after purchasing an additional 8,185,006 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,719,723,000 after acquiring an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth about $1,858,418,000. 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.