Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 51,441 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $983,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,999,912,000 after buying an additional 2,588,539 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in AT&T by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after buying an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of AT&T by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $575,070,000 after buying an additional 315,580 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $21.66 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $14.12 and a 52 week high of $22.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $155.31 billion, a PE ratio of 11.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.46.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 10.41%. The company had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on T. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup raised their target price on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.31.

AT&T Company 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.