Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Raises Stock Position in KT Corporation $KT

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in KT Corporation by 3.8% in the first quarter, owning approximately 10.6 million shares valued at about $188 million.
• Additional large investors such as Boston Partners and Ninety One UK Ltd have also significantly increased their holdings in KT, highlighting increased institutional interest in the stock.
• KT Corporation received an upgrade from Wall Street Zen, raising its rating from "buy" to "strong-buy," with a current average rating of "Buy" from analysts.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of KT Corporation (NYSE:KT - Free Report) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,612,820 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 388,592 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 2.06% of KT worth $187,954,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners grew its position in KT by 193.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,658,852 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $64,806,000 after buying an additional 2,410,971 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd grew its stake in KT by 28.3% in the 1st quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,890,767 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $86,615,000 after acquiring an additional 1,079,860 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in KT by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 5,547,691 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $98,250,000 after acquiring an additional 875,840 shares during the period. Beck Bode LLC purchased a new stake in KT in the 4th quarter worth $12,974,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in KT during the fourth quarter worth $6,624,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 18.86% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KT. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of KT from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded KT from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have assigned a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Strong Buy".

KT Price Performance

KT traded down $0.19 on Friday, reaching $20.25. 482,683 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,373,100. KT Corporation has a twelve month low of $14.53 and a twelve month high of $21.61. The stock has a market cap of $10.44 billion, a PE ratio of 22.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.14 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $20.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.15.

KT (NYSE:KT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 17th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter. KT had a net margin of 2.37% and a return on equity of 3.47%. The company had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter. Sell-side analysts expect that KT Corporation will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

KT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 30th were given a dividend of $0.2164 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 30th. This represents a $0.87 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. KT's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.17%.

About KT

KT Corporation provides integrated telecommunications and platform services in Korea and internationally. The company offers mobile voice and data telecommunications services based on 5G, 4G LTE and 3G W-CDMA technology; fixed-line telephone services, including local, domestic long-distance, international long-distance, and voice over Internet protocol telephone services, as well as interconnection services; broadband Internet access service and other Internet-related services; and data communication services, such as fixed-line and leased line services, as well as broadband Internet connection services.