AT&T (NYSE:T) Price Target Raised to $26.00

AT&T (NYSE:T) had its price target raised by Citigroup from $24.00 to $26.00 in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Scotiabank lowered shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.53.

AT&T Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $23.16 on Wednesday. AT&T has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $23.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.17 and a 200 day moving average of $20.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AT&T will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.79%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after purchasing an additional 13,201,774 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 43.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during 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. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $477,528,000 after buying an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in AT&T during the second quarter worth about $78,570,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.