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AT&T (T) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, AT&T (T - Free Report) closed at $29.37, marking a -0.47% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.02%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 2.71%.

Coming into today, shares of the telecommunications company had lost 2.28% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 0.91%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.39%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from T as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect T to post earnings of $0.77 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 18.09%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $41.67 billion, down 6.55% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.21 per share and revenue of $169.54 billion, which would represent changes of -10.08% and -6.43%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for T should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.85% lower. T currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that T has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.2 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.79, which means T is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that T currently has a PEG ratio of 1.66. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Wireless National stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 4.21 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 127, putting it in the top 50% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow T in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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