AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Price Down 0.3% – Should You Sell?

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) dropped 0.3% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $24.33 and last traded at $24.39. Approximately 4,951,082 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 38,060,004 shares. The stock had previously closed at $24.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on T. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.21.

AT&T Trading Up 0.4 %

The company has a market capitalization of $176.19 billion, a PE ratio of 16.48, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.52%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of T. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AT&T by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake 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 during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after buying an additional 1,149,688 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,057,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,208,123,000 after buying an additional 414,984 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in AT&T by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 33,963,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $753,318,000 after acquiring an additional 5,614,168 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.