Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 2,992,073 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,032,367 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,992,073 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,184,717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the period. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on T. Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com cut AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.24.

AT&T Price Performance

AT&T stock opened at $27.12 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $26.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.14. The firm has a market cap of $194.67 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $16.17 and a one year high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. 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.