Morgan Stanley Upgrades AT&T (NYSE:T) to Overweight

AT&T (NYSE:T) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $28.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $19.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 22.59% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.18.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE T opened at $22.84 on Monday. AT&T has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $24.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $163.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that AT&T will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in AT&T in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $23,888,000. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Talbot Financial LLC acquired a new position in AT&T during the third quarter worth $7,438,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.