Busey Bank Buys 14,825 Shares of AT&T Inc. $T

Key Points

• Busey Bank increased its stake in AT&T Inc. by 17.9%, acquiring 14,825 shares during the second quarter, bringing its total holdings to 97,660 shares valued at approximately $2.83 million.
• Analysts have set new price targets for AT&T, with the consensus rating being "Moderate Buy" and a target price averaging $30.74.
• AT&T recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2775, which translates to an annualized yield of 3.8%.

Busey Bank increased its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 17.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,660 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 14,825 shares during the quarter. Busey Bank's holdings in AT&T were worth $2,826,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AT&T by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 651,044,650 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $18,411,543,000 after purchasing an additional 8,185,006 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,266,758,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 17.7% during 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. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 55,216,190 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,561,514,000 after purchasing an additional 1,783,363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 53,339,376 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,508,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307,009 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. HSBC lowered shares of AT&T from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group set a $33.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $30.74.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $29.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $207.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $28.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $21.05 and a 12 month high of $29.79.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $30.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.44 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 13.36%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. AT&T's dividend 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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