AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 2.1% Higher – Time to Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s share price traded up 2.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $26.46 and last traded at $26.27. 9,702,755 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 41,549,484 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Scotiabank upped their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.74.

AT&T Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market capitalization of $190.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.86, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 320,089 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,288,000 after purchasing an additional 21,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

About AT&T

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.