AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Purchased by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 14.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,063,500 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 131,702 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $24,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 10,276 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,666 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 39,043 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $889,000 after buying an additional 1,390 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $258,000. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 12,025 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 989 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 99.1% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 171,144 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,897,000 after buying an additional 85,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.71.

AT&T Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of NYSE T opened at $27.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $199.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The business has a 50-day moving average of $27.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.90. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.11 and a 1 year high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm had revenue of $30.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 68.10%.

AT&T 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.