IFP Advisors Inc Increases Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 103.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 302,878 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 154,196 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in AT&T were worth $6,896,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.3% in 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after buying an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,467,000 after buying an additional 325,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,152,016 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a 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 target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.33.

AT&T Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of T opened at $26.64 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.32. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.94 and a 1-year high of $26.72. The stock has a market cap of $191.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.50%.

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.