AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 0.1% Higher

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) shares shot up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $17.41 and last traded at $17.32. 5,824,003 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 37,450,184 shares. The stock had previously closed at $17.30.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on T. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of AT&T from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. TheStreet raised shares of AT&T from a "c" rating to a "b-" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of AT&T from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $124.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $17.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.77.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.38%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.68%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $790,301,000 after acquiring an additional 34,189,954 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 130.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $316,472,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of AT&T by 38.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company's stock worth $519,070,000 after purchasing an additional 9,518,478 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.