Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on AT&T (NYSE:T)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 76,955 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 14% compared to the average daily volume of 67,224 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in AT&T during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 48.6% during the 4th quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new position in AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 169.2% during the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 1,338 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on T. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank increased their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $26.33.

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AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock traded up $0.25 during trading on Friday, reaching $25.88. The company had a trading volume of 31,416,899 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,748,465. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $23.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.99. AT&T has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $25.93. 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 capitalization of $185.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T's payout ratio 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.