Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on AT&T (NYSE:T)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 106,815 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 31% compared to the average daily volume of 81,675 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in T. Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 19,210 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,410 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 12.2% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 17,743 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $502,000 after purchasing an additional 1,931 shares in the last quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.6% in the first quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 197,917 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,597,000 after buying an additional 1,176 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 8.4% in the first quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 43,402 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 3,370 shares during the period. Finally, Key Colony Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 100.0% in the first quarter. Key Colony Management LLC now owns 20,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE T traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, hitting $26.62. 37,746,194 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,460,914. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.76. 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 cap of $191.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AT&T will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Monday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.21.

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.