Allworth Financial LP Increases Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,423,917 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,113 shares during the quarter. Allworth Financial LP’s holdings in AT&T were worth $31,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after acquiring an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,467,000 after purchasing an additional 325,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $346,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,016 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on T. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T opened at $25.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $23.23 and a 200 day moving average of $22.04. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $25.93. The company has a market capitalization of $185.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.37, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

AT&T 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.