AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 2.2% Higher – What’s Next?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shot up 2.2% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $27.56 and last traded at $27.55. 10,449,619 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 34,285,727 shares. The stock had previously closed at $26.96.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on T. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Argus raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.79.

AT&T Price Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $202.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $25.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.43.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in T. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,719,723,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,644 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after purchasing an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,858,418,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About AT&T

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.