AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Purchased by D.A. Davidson & CO.

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 443,076 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,438 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $10,089,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after buying an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in AT&T by 15.8% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $346,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,016 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 112.9% during the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 2,916,698 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,167,000 after buying an additional 1,546,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,807,000 after buying an additional 1,206,330 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE:T opened at $26.07 on Wednesday. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $26.18. The company has a market cap of $187.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

About AT&T

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.