Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 22,342 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,254,967 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 22,342 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $51,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Chesapeake Wealth Management raised its position in AT&T by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management now owns 24,304 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. now owns 16,905 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $385,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Socha Financial Group LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 2.5% during the third quarter. Socha Financial Group LLC now owns 18,847 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares during the period. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.4% in the third quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 34,468 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 468 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Essex Savings Bank grew its position in AT&T by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Essex Savings Bank now owns 21,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of T opened at $22.51 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $24.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $161.54 billion, a PE ratio of 18.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.59. The business’s 50 day moving average is $22.80 and its 200 day moving average is $21.40.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial raised their price target on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.83.

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.