Advisory Resource Group Grows Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Advisory Resource Group increased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,523 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,043 shares during the period. Advisory Resource Group’s holdings in AT&T were worth $694,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in AT&T by 85,003.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,414,568,000 after buying an additional 76,746,649 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,229,499,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,018,462,000 after purchasing an additional 29,769,976 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 328.1% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 15,569,212 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $299,707,000 after buying an additional 11,932,735 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 45.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,198,859 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $619,829,000 after buying an additional 10,117,746 shares in the last quarter. 53.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Performance

T traded down $0.14 during trading on Monday, reaching $15.09. 2,189,598 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,874,527. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $20.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.33.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The technology company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $29.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.07 billion. AT&T had a negative net margin of 7.22% and a positive return on equity of 15.91%. The business’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 7th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.36%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -90.98%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on T shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Citigroup raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded shares of AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 6th. Argus cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of AT&T from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $17.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.00.

AT&T 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, and carrying cases and hands-free devices through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.