ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,331,306 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 474 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $30,314,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP purchased a new position in AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth $23,888,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank increased its position in 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. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 30,281 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on T. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Oppenheimer 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 on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Performance

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

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

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

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.