AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Price Up 1% – Still a Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s share price traded up 1% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $22.14 and last traded at $22.14. 3,073,581 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 35,578,723 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.92.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Scotiabank cut shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on AT&T from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.40.

AT&T Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $21.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. The company has a market cap of $158.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.03%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in AT&T by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after buying an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in AT&T by 1.1% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $575,070,000 after acquiring an additional 315,580 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AT&T

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.