National Pension Service Increases Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

National Pension Service lifted its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,288,624 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 257,978 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned 0.19% of AT&T worth $222,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 130.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company's stock worth $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in AT&T by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company's stock worth $519,070,000 after purchasing an additional 9,518,478 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,227,124 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $393,931,000 after acquiring an additional 6,137,909 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 43.0% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,739,648 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $221,242,000 after acquiring an additional 4,432,136 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays upgraded AT&T from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $20.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Citigroup lifted their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered AT&T from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE T traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $17.18. The company had a trading volume of 22,541,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,480,242. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market cap of $123.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.70. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $13.43 and a fifty-two week high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T's dividend payout ratio is 59.68%.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.