Herold Advisors Inc. Grows Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Herold Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 69,490 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,880 shares during the quarter. Herold Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 185.6% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after buying an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 130.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after buying an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 38.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $519,070,000 after buying an additional 9,518,478 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 30.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,227,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $393,931,000 after buying an additional 6,137,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 43.0% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,739,648 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $221,242,000 after buying an additional 4,432,136 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Up 1.0 %

T stock opened at $16.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.43 and a 52 week high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on T. TheStreet raised shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.81.

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.