A study of analyst recommendations at the major brokerages shows that AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is the #20 broker pick, on average, out of the 30 stocks making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to ETF Channel.
Within the broader S&P 500, when components were ranked in terms of analyst favorites, T stock claims the #332 spot.
In forming this rank, the analyst opinions on AT&T from the major brokerage houses were tallied and averaged. Then the underlying components were ranked according to those averages.
Investors often interpret analyst opinions from different angles — when companies have a low rank among analysts, it isn’t necessarily the case that investors should conclude that the stock will perform poorly. It can, of course, but a bullish investor could also take the contrarian angle and read into the data that there is lots of room for upside because the stock is so out of favor.
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From the other direction, a popular analyst pick could mean that many sharp minds individually came to the same bullish conclusion, and therefore the stock should do well, but it could also mean that if the company stumbles, that would come as a negative surprise.
For these reasons, we at ETF Channel find value to putting together these rankings because both the top and the bottom ends of the list can often make for some interesting stock picking ideas for further research.
Below is a chart of T stock’s rank over time:
According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, AT&T makes up 13.88% of the iShares Global Telecom ETF (NYSEARCA:IXP) which is trading higher by about 0.2% on the day today.
AT&T operates in the Communications Services sector among companies like China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL), which is off about 0.6% today, and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) trading relatively unchanged.
Below is a three-month price history chart comparing the stock performance of T versus CHL and VZ.
AT&T stock is currently trading up about 0.1% midday today.
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