Scotiabank Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for AT&T (NYSE:T) Stock

AT&T (NYSE:T) had its price objective lifted by Scotiabank from $26.00 to $28.50 in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a sector outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

T has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.74.

AT&T Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $26.19 on Monday. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.72. The company has a market cap of $188.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.58, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. AT&T has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $27.97.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its 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 net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Research analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AT&T

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,637,914,000 after buying an additional 6,220,442 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. 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.