Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 325,073 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $399,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of T. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its stake in AT&T by 169.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 1,338 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on T. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.21.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of T opened at $24.46 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.75. The company has a market cap of $175.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $24.98.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

AT&T Company 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.