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AT&T (T) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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AT&T (T - Free Report) closed at $30.23 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.07% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.54%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.85%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.87%.

Heading into today, shares of the telecommunications company had lost 3.3% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 3.97% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.57% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from T as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be July 23, 2020. In that report, analysts expect T to post earnings of $0.83 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 6.74%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $41.41 billion, down 7.89% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.21 per share and revenue of $170.98 billion. These totals would mark changes of -10.08% and -5.64%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for T. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.2% higher. T is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, T is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.32. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 24.59, which means T is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that T currently has a PEG ratio of 1.69. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. T's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.89 as of yesterday's close.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 38, putting it in the top 15% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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