97,743 AT&T Inc. $T Shares Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,236,164 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 97,743 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $30,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in T. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in AT&T in the second quarter valued at $2,310,898,000. GQG Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,223,364,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the 2nd quarter valued at about $960,695,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 334,273,613 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,919,464,000 after purchasing an additional 18,468,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth about $259,954,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $33.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on AT&T from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Scotiabank lowered their price target on AT&T from $27.50 to $26.50 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on AT&T from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.55.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T stock opened at $21.33 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $143.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.94. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.89 and a 52 week high of $29.43.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $32.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.69 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 13.41%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 12th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 60.00%.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and related connectivity services. Its offerings include mobile voice and data plans, internet access, fiber broadband, fixed wireless services, and business communications solutions.

The company serves consumers, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations primarily in the United States. AT&T’s business operations include wireless network services, wireline connectivity, fiber-optic internet, voice services, and networking solutions designed to connect locations, devices, and applications.

AT&T traces its history to the Bell System and has operated under its current corporate name since 2005, following the acquisition of AT&T Corp.