Axis Wealth Partners LLC Invests $481,000 in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Axis Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 21,144 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $481,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in AT&T in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $62,000. M&G PLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the third quarter valued at $1,007,000. Leavell Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,640 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after buying an additional 6,853 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co. lifted its stake in AT&T by 81.6% during the 3rd quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 25,703 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $565,000 after acquiring an additional 11,552 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in AT&T during the 3rd quarter valued at about $718,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Up 1.6 %

AT&T stock opened at $27.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $194.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.22, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $27.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.82.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. Equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.74.

About AT&T

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.