Everence Capital Management Inc. Acquires 19,920 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Everence Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 211,666 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,920 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $4,657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after purchasing an additional 13,201,774 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $477,528,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $78,570,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on T shares. Daiwa America raised shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.69.

AT&T Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of AT&T stock traded down $0.08 during trading on Monday, hitting $21.77. 13,459,897 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,426,676. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.98. The firm has a market cap of $156.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.60. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.74 and a 52-week high of $22.34.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.57. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The company had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.10%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

About AT&T

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.