Independence Bank of Kentucky Boosts Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 52.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,973 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,775 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in AT&T were worth $250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in T. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 15.8% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $346,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,016 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in AT&T by 112.9% during the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 2,916,698 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,167,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,807,000 after buying an additional 1,206,330 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup raised their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.11.

AT&T Stock Down 1.2 %

AT&T stock opened at $23.74 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.64. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $24.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS 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 analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

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.