Certified Advisory Corp Acquires 5,195 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Certified Advisory Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 17.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 34,562 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,195 shares during the period. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in AT&T were worth $760,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after buying an additional 13,201,774 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 43.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in AT&T by 7.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares during the period. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $477,528,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at about $78,570,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $23.18 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $23.29. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.94. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $166.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.85, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.40.

About AT&T

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.