Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 99.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 171,144 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 85,200 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in AT&T were worth $3,897,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in AT&T in the second quarter worth approximately $23,888,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after buying an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on T. Tigress Financial upped their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.83.

AT&T Price Performance

T opened at $22.02 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $157.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.24%.

AT&T Company 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.