AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 1.2% – Time to Buy?

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s share price shot up 1.2% on Friday . The company traded as high as $22.72 and last traded at $22.6980. 84,480,264 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 90% from the average daily volume of 44,529,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.42.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $31.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut AT&T from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Oppenheimer downgraded AT&T from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Arete Research raised AT&T from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $28.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.55.

AT&T Trading Up 1.2%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.66. The stock has a market cap of $157.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.62, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.49% and a net margin of 16.94%.The company had revenue of $31.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. AT&T has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.250-2.350 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.25%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 664,055,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,495,144,000 after buying an additional 3,585,661 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in AT&T by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 332,089,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,249,109,000 after acquiring an additional 8,314,678 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in AT&T by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 125,191,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,629,307,000 after acquiring an additional 5,449,222 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at $2,181,977,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 12.7% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 72,764,509 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,109,443,000 after acquiring an additional 8,197,935 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc is a global telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and digital entertainment services. Its core activities include consumer and business wireless services, broadband and fiber internet, and network infrastructure. The company operates branded wireless services through AT&T Mobility and deploys fixed-line and fiber networks to deliver high-speed internet and related home services.

AT&T’s product and service portfolio spans mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and device sales, home internet (including fiber-to-the-home where available), and managed connectivity solutions for enterprise customers.