AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Position Increased by HighPoint Advisor Group LLC

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 331,235 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,172 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $8,324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,673,693 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $197,500,000 after acquiring an additional 725,780 shares during the period. Seven Mile Advisory raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 13,521 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 69.6% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 246,712 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,618,000 after purchasing an additional 101,206 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in AT&T by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 18,632,607 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $424,264,000 after buying an additional 5,329,647 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AIA Group Ltd increased its stake in AT&T by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 325,436 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,410,000 after buying an additional 9,454 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the topic of several research reports. Argus raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. BNP Paribas upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Oppenheimer began 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. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.79.

AT&T Trading Down 0.0 %

AT&T stock opened at $28.20 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $202.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $25.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.54. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $28.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

About AT&T

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.