Telefónica, S.A. (NYSE:TEF) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Reduce" from Analysts

Telefónica, S.A. (NYSE:TEF - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Reduce" from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company.

Separately, StockNews.com raised Telefónica from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th.

Telefónica Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:TEF traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $4.19. 538,771 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 700,634. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.10 and a beta of 0.68. Telefónica has a twelve month low of $3.82 and a twelve month high of $4.93. The business's fifty day moving average price is $4.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.85.

Telefónica (NYSE:TEF - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $11.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11 billion. Telefónica had a positive return on equity of 10.10% and a negative net margin of 2.84%. On average, research analysts predict that Telefónica will post 0.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Telefónica Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.1576 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a yield of 5.2%. Telefónica's payout ratio is currently -84.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TEF. FMR LLC grew its stake in Telefónica by 8.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,898,978 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $9,229,000 after purchasing an additional 146,259 shares during the period. Drum Hill Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Telefónica during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,001,000. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV increased its stake in shares of Telefónica by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 398,457 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 12,606 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Telefónica by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 397,905 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,600,000 after acquiring an additional 3,688 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Telefónica by 24.7% during the third quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 387,777 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,885,000 after acquiring an additional 76,912 shares in the last quarter. 1.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Telefónica

Telefónica, SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Europe and Latin America. The company offers mobile and related services and products, such as mobile voice, value added, mobile data and internet, wholesale, corporate, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services.