AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Acquired by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 58.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,670 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,584 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after buying an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of AT&T by 2.3% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in 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 last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in AT&T by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. Barclays increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, New Street Research raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $22.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $22.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.40. The company has a market cap of $161.54 billion, a PE ratio of 18.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 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 4.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

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.