WealthCare Investment Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

WealthCare Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 9.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,818 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,092 shares during the period. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter worth about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in 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 last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 320,089 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,288,000 after acquiring an additional 21,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after acquiring an additional 30,281 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on T shares. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $26.23 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $188.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $26.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $23.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.20.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

About AT&T

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.