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

In the latest trading session, AT&T (T) closed at $38.10, marking a -1.22% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.29%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.04%.

Heading into today, shares of the telecommunications company had gained 0.57% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 7.4% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.38% in that time.

T will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 29, 2020. On that day, T is projected to report earnings of $0.88 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 2.33%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $46.98 billion, down 2.1% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for T should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.84% higher within the past month. T is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, T is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 10.69. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.81, so we one might conclude that T is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that T currently has a PEG ratio of 2.42. 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. The Wireless National was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.07 at yesterday's closing price.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 202, which puts it in the bottom 21% 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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