Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 352.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,870 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,793 shares during the quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $111,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in AT&T by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,148,689,000 after acquiring an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in AT&T by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 28,113,880 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $537,256,000 after acquiring an additional 675,082 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of T stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $21.69. 41,365,991 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 31,943,938. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market cap of $155.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.18. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price target on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays upped their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.76.

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.