AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Down 0.8% – Should You Sell?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) traded down 0.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $22.68 and last traded at $22.81. 4,961,907 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 35,375,734 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.99.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.40.

AT&T Trading Up 0.4 %

The company has a fifty day moving average of $21.96 and a 200-day moving average of $19.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.81 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results 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. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.86%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in AT&T during the second quarter worth about $23,888,000. Swiss National Bank grew its position in AT&T by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Talbot Financial LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T during the third quarter worth about $7,438,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in AT&T by 12.2% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,641,856 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,486,000 after buying an additional 288,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC grew its position in AT&T by 18.3% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. 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.