Russell Investments Group Ltd. Increases Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 13.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,599,198 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 900,026 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.11% of AT&T worth $127,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of T. Newport Trust Company LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 0.3% in the third quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,003,971,000 after buying an additional 673,043 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in AT&T by 2.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,128,878,000 after buying an additional 1,828,237 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in AT&T by 0.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,270,173 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $905,258,000 after buying an additional 334,222 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 130.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after buying an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T by 185.6% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after buying an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup upped their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Tigress Financial upped their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

T traded up $0.17 during trading on Friday, reaching $16.75. The stock had a trading volume of 37,852,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,190,348. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.43 and a 1-year high of $18.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $16.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.56.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.63%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

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, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.