LRI Investments LLC Makes New $425,000 Investment in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 24,631 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $425,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at about $360,000. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at about $269,000. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd increased its position in shares of AT&T by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd now owns 15,976 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 996 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in AT&T by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 18,725 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415 shares during the period. Finally, RHS Financial LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at about $223,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the subject of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on AT&T in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays increased their target price on AT&T from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.33.

AT&T Stock Down 0.9 %

T stock traded down $0.18 on Friday, reaching $19.01. 30,844,174 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,635,392. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $13.89 and a one year high of $19.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $136.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.47.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57. The business had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.