Analysts Upgrade Hasbro Inc. (HAS), General Mills Inc. (GIS), and AT&T Inc. (T)

Moving on General Mills Inc. (NYSE:GIS), which was upgraded by Morgan Stanley to “Equal weight” from “Underweight” with a target price of $56 (up from $53). The stock is currently trading slightly above the new target, after gaining 1.80% in today’s trading session. The investment bank reckons that the manufacturer of branded consumer foods will be able to deliver strong earnings per share during the 2016 fiscal year, thanks to company’s aggressive cost reduction efforts. Even more to that, General Mills has started the implementation of three restructuring programs, which are expected to generate $400 million in annual cost savings. The stock has been relatively stable throughout 2015, returning slightly over 5% year-to-date. Ultimately, 27 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had positions in General Mills at the end of the last quarter, while the value of these holdings added up to $404.77 million. Among them, Malcolm Fairbairn‘s Ascend Capital initiated a stake with 201,729 shares during the second quarter.

Last but not least, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) was upgraded by Citigroup to “Buy” from “Hold” and with a price target of $37 per share. The shares of AT&T have been affected by the recent correction and turmoil, which made the stock more attractive for investors. Citigroup believes that the company’s dividends are likely to benefit from its improving free cash flow and from potential merger-related synergies. AT&T recently combined with DirectTV, which created the largest pay-TV operator in the United States with approximately 28 million subscribers. Additionally, Citigroup claimed that the company’s earnings per share estimates are somewhat low and will be easily outperformed. The investment firm expects AT&T to deliver EPS of $2.88 in 2016, higher by 5% than the current consensus. In the meantime, the number of hedge funds within our database with long positions in AT&T increased to 49 from 43 during the second quarter, whereas the value of their holdings slumped to $1.60 billion from $1.88 billion. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management is the largest shareholder of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) within our database, owning 7.44 million shares as of the end of June.

Disclosure: None