AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.06.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays raised their target price on AT&T from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Scotiabank cut AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vantage Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 38,207 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $641,000 after purchasing an additional 7,762 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 31,130 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 40.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 142,331 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,388,000 after purchasing an additional 41,244 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 27,770 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $466,000 after purchasing an additional 1,194 shares during the period. Finally, Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 12,570 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Price Performance

T opened at $21.50 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.66. AT&T has a 1 year low of $14.12 and a 1 year high of $21.60. The firm has a market cap of $154.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.56, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. The business had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that AT&T will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

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.