Ames National Corp Purchases New Shares in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Ames National Corp purchased a new position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 14,037 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Consolidated Planning Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 320,089 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,288,000 after purchasing an additional 21,927 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Financial Group increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 196.3% in the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Group now owns 216,980 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,322,000 after buying an additional 143,744 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 36.4% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 237,477 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,407,000 after buying an additional 63,359 shares during the last quarter. Fortress Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $691,000. Finally, DigitalBridge Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 2,865,814 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $65,255,000 after acquiring an additional 365,776 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Williams Trading set a $30.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.71.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $27.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $199.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.64, a PEG 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 12 month low of $17.11 and a 12 month high of $29.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $27.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.10%.

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.