AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 0.8% – Should You Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s stock price traded up 0.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $27.95 and last traded at $27.93. 6,078,424 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 36,708,480 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.72.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Monday, April 7th. DZ Bank raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.71.

AT&T Stock Up 1.0%

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 company has a market capitalization of $201.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $27.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.94.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 68.10%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of T. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Company Profile

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.