AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Price Down 1.3%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) dropped 1.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $18.47 and last traded at $18.56. Approximately 6,382,250 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 36,270,723 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.80.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $18.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Scotiabank upped their price objective 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.81.

AT&T Price Performance

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 fifty day moving average is $17.87 and its 200-day moving average is $17.29. The stock has a market cap of $133.87 billion, a PE ratio of 9.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.58.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.23 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of T. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 5.6% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,328,528,000 after purchasing an additional 4,014,873 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,118,288,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $848,888,000 after purchasing an additional 798,024 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $794,978,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,792 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.