ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Boosts Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,331,306 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 474 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $30,314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $23,888,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 30,281 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE T opened at $22.30 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $22.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.35. The company has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on T shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of telecommunications and technology services. It operates through the Communications and Latin America segments. The Communications segment offers wireless, wireline telecom, and broadband services to businesses and consumers located in the US and businesses globally.