AT&T Inc. $T Shares Bought by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. has increased its stake in AT&T by 32%, now owning approximately 34.4 million shares valued at nearly $973.8 million.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their price targets for AT&T, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. increasing its target from $31.00 to $33.00, and the current consensus price target is $30.21.
• AT&T recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.2775 per share, yielding approximately 3.8%, with a payout ratio of 63.07%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 32.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,435,357 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,355,686 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.48% of AT&T worth $973,833,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in AT&T by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 651,044,650 shares of the technology company's stock worth $18,411,543,000 after purchasing an additional 8,185,006 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in AT&T by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 113,957,259 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,222,711,000 after purchasing an additional 17,177,874 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 78,148,354 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,779,438,000 after buying an additional 10,945,679 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 53,432,827 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,216,665,000 after buying an additional 12,881,578 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 53,339,376 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,508,411,000 after buying an additional 1,307,009 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on T. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AT&T from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $30.21.

AT&T Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $29.4350 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.33. The stock has a market cap of $210.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.72, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.40 and a 12-month high of $29.56.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. AT&T had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 13.36%. The firm had revenue of $30.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.44 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.51 EPS. AT&T's revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. AT&T's payout ratio is presently 63.07%.

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.

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