Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Boosts Stake in AT&T Inc. $T

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lifted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,050 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 547 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,130,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 182.1% in the first quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC now owns 993 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 641 shares during the period. Finally, Core Alternative Capital boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 125.4% in the first quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 1,021 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. Bank of America started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on AT&T from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on AT&T from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $31.00 price target (up previously from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.60.

AT&T Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of T opened at $29.52 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $28.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.78. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $21.05 and a one year high of $29.79. The company has a market capitalization of $211.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.81.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.36% and a net margin of 10.29%.The firm had revenue of $30.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.07%.

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.