Howard Bailey Securities LLC Raises Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Howard Bailey Securities LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 14.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,844 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,536 shares during the period. Howard Bailey Securities LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $270,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in AT&T by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after acquiring an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after buying an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of AT&T by 7.2% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 396,958 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,928,000 after acquiring an additional 26,706 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on T. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T opened at $25.37 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $23.11 and a 200-day moving average of $21.94. The company has a market cap of $182.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $25.38.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 74.50%.

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.