AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Plans $0.28 Quarterly Dividend

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.2775 per share by the technology company on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.75%.

AT&T has decreased its dividend by an average of 18.9% per year over the last three years. AT&T has a payout ratio of 50.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect AT&T to earn $2.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.11 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.9%.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE T traded down $0.12 on Thursday, hitting $23.36. 21,997,893 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,527,289. The firm has a market capitalization of $167.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.09, a PEG ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.59. The business’s fifty day moving average is $22.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.49. AT&T has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $24.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on T shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AT&T in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on AT&T in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

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.