AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading Up 0.6% After Dividend Announcement

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) traded up 0.6% during mid-day trading on Monday following a dividend announcement from the company. The company traded as high as $28.56 and last traded at $28.36. 8,962,893 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 36,084,870 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.18.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 74.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on T. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. DZ Bank raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank increased 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. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.79.

AT&T Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $203.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $25.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.54.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Acropolis Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 77.1% during the third quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 22,881 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $503,000 after buying an additional 9,961 shares during the last quarter. Encompass More Asset Management purchased a new stake in AT&T during the 3rd quarter valued at about $225,000. Tradition Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in AT&T during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $270,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 1,936.9% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 5,520 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $121,000 after purchasing an additional 5,249 shares during the period. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in AT&T in the third quarter valued at approximately $22,307,000. 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.