James Investment Research Inc. Purchases 981 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

James Investment Research Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,271 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 981 shares during the period. James Investment Research Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in AT&T in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE raised its holdings in AT&T by 169.2% during the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 1,338 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in AT&T during the third quarter worth about $35,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on T. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group increased their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank raised their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $25.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $23.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.04. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.94 and a 1-year high of $25.93. The company has a market cap of $185.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.37, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.29%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.50%.

AT&T 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.