Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Takes $32.85 Million Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,442,705 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $32,850,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of T. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,858,418,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares during 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 worth $1,779,438,000 after buying an additional 10,945,679 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 4,986.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company's stock worth $225,741,000 after acquiring an additional 9,719,036 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,651,898 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,085,034,000 after purchasing an additional 7,347,354 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on T. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on AT&T from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $28.71.

AT&T Trading Down 0.9%

T stock traded down $0.25 on Thursday, reaching $27.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 25,858,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,742,055. The firm has a market cap of $195.86 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.01. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $17.11 and a 12-month high of $29.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T's dividend payout ratio is currently 68.10%.

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.