Alliancebernstein L.P. Increases Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 40.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,632,607 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,329,647 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $424,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in AT&T by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 325,436 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,410,000 after acquiring an additional 9,454 shares during the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. raised its position in shares of AT&T by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 10,254 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,663 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 161.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,522,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,444,000 after buying an additional 1,557,431 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 30.3% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 1,828,239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,629,000 after buying an additional 425,655 shares during the period. Finally, Bcwm LLC purchased a new position in AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,531,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on T shares. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, New Street Research raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.00.

AT&T Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of T opened at $28.33 on Tuesday. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $28.56. The firm has a market cap of $203.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.01, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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, equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 3.92%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.50%.

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.