Grimes & Company Inc. Raises Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Grimes & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 33,530 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,245 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $738,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of T. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in AT&T by 1,379.0% in the second 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 last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $414,563,000 after buying an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 5,592,123 shares during the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 22.0% in the second 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 during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the second quarter worth approximately $78,570,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $22.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.66. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $14.74 and a 1-year high of $22.58. The company has a market capitalization of $159.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.06.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on T shares. Moffett Nathanson lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.40.

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.