269,712 Shares in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Purchased by Financial & Tax Architects LLC

Financial & Tax Architects LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 269,712 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,141,000. AT&T accounts for approximately 1.6% of Financial & Tax Architects LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in AT&T by 43.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 valued at $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in AT&T by 110.3% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,155,046 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $117,623,000 after acquiring an additional 3,228,888 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in AT&T by 1,901.0% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,166,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,518,000 after acquiring an additional 3,008,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the subject of several recent research reports. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Argus upgraded 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 Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.83.

AT&T Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of AT&T stock traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $22.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 33,632,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,784,102. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $24.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $22.79 and a 200-day moving average of $21.29. The stock has a market cap of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. Research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. 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.