Principal Securities Inc. Acquires 662 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Principal Securities Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 134,350 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 662 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $3,799,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Keystone Financial Group boosted its position in AT&T by 196.3% during the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Group now owns 216,980 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,322,000 after acquiring an additional 143,744 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in AT&T during the first quarter valued at $201,000. World Investment Advisors boosted its position in AT&T by 36.4% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 237,477 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,407,000 after acquiring an additional 63,359 shares during the last quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 2,865,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $65,255,000 after acquiring an additional 365,776 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Huber Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Huber Capital Management LLC now owns 577,985 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,161,000 after purchasing an additional 15,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on T shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Williams Trading set a $30.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.05.

AT&T Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:T opened at $28.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $203.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.14 and a 52 week high of $29.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.23.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 9.64% and a return on equity of 13.63%. The company 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 company earned $0.55 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio 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.