Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases Shares of 40,745 AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 40,745 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $684,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sora Investors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 3rd quarter worth about $11,265,000. Provence Wealth Management Group raised its position in AT&T by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 16,217 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 5,807 shares during the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 38,929 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $585,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178 shares during the last quarter. Retireful LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,163,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in AT&T by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 46,265 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 5,161 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on T. TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Wolfe Research raised AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Performance

T traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $16.99. 24,179,539 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,930,922. The company’s 50-day moving average is $16.98 and its 200 day moving average is $16.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.82 billion, a PE ratio of 9.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.43 and a 52 week high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.