Traders Buy Large Volume of AT&T Call Options (NYSE:T)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 216,762 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 161% compared to the typical daily volume of 83,023 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on T shares. Tigress Financial raised their target price on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of AT&T in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on AT&T from $28.50 to $29.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.24.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company's stock worth $14,637,914,000 after acquiring an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,858,418,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock traded up $0.40 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $26.79. 32,053,085 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 36,892,644. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $26.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.97. The firm has a market cap of $192.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. AT&T has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, analysts expect that AT&T will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.14%. AT&T's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.50%.

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.