AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock Rating Upgraded by Argus

AT&T (NYSE:T) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Argus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $27.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Argus’ price target suggests a potential upside of 21.10% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock opened at $22.30 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.29. AT&T has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AT&T will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in AT&T by 2.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 28,113,880 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $537,256,000 after purchasing an additional 675,082 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

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.