AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Down 0.2% – Time to Sell?

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) traded down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $27.95 and last traded at $27.98. 5,210,650 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 36,681,185 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.02.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the subject of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on AT&T from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Williams Trading set a $30.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.71.

AT&T Stock Down 0.8%

The company has a market cap of $200.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $27.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.98.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.99%. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 68.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AT&T

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 651,044,650 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,411,543,000 after purchasing an additional 8,185,006 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $3,719,723,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 113,957,259 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,222,711,000 after acquiring an additional 17,177,874 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in 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 buying an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $1,858,418,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

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.