AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Down 0.5%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 0.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $16.81 and last traded at $16.83. Approximately 6,501,326 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 38,964,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.92.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on T shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a "c" rating to a "b-" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded 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. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, AT&T currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $20.81.

AT&T Trading Down 0.6 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $120.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The business's 50-day moving average is $16.97 and its 200 day moving average is $16.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The firm's revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.60%. AT&T's payout ratio is presently 59.68%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

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

About AT&T

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.