Board of the Pension Protection Fund Buys New Holdings in AT&T Inc. $T

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 27,700 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 26.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 48,579 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,106,000 after acquiring an additional 10,188 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 15.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165,258 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,673,000 after purchasing an additional 22,195 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 10.8% in the first quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 87,262 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,468,000 after purchasing an additional 8,532 shares during the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 4.5% in the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 32,427 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $917,000 after purchasing an additional 1,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 42.3% in the first quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 6,041 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,797 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Wednesday. HSBC cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $32.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.75.

AT&T Trading Down 1.0%

T stock opened at $25.85 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.05 and a twelve month high of $29.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.88.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. AT&T had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 13.36%. The business had revenue of $30.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.07%.

AT&T Company 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.