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

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AT&T (T - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $30.40, moving +1% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.51%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.42%.

Heading into today, shares of the telecommunications company had lost 0.2% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.69% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.64% in that time.

T will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 30, 2019. In that report, analysts expect T to post earnings of $0.85 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.97%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $48.44 billion, up 16.24% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. T is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that T has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.32 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.72.

Also, we should mention that T has a PEG ratio of 1.31. 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. T's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.09 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 71, putting it in the top 28% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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