AT&T (NYSE:T) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of AT&T (NYSE:T) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Barclays currently has $20.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on T. StockNews.com raised shares of AT&T from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. TheStreet raised shares of AT&T from a c rating to a b- rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:T opened at $16.92 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.68. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.62. AT&T has a fifty-two week low of $13.43 and a fifty-two week high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. AT&T’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.56%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,443,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,155,232 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.3% in the third quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,003,971,000 after purchasing an additional 673,043 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in AT&T by 5.6% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,328,528,000 after acquiring an additional 4,014,873 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,128,878,000 after buying an additional 1,828,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,118,288,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.