AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Down 0.2%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares dropped 0.2% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $16.73 and last traded at $16.79. Approximately 6,994,675 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 38,899,609 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.82.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

T has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet raised AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Up 0.2 %

The firm has a market cap of $120.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.06, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in AT&T by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,443,980,000 after acquiring an additional 2,155,232 shares during the period. Newport Trust Company LLC raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.3% during the third quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,003,971,000 after purchasing an additional 673,043 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in AT&T by 5.6% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,328,528,000 after purchasing an additional 4,014,873 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in AT&T by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,128,878,000 after buying an additional 1,828,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth about $1,118,288,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.