Allstate Corp Makes New $4.81 Million Investment in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 211,117 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,807,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AT&T by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after buying an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $1,858,418,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group increased their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.79.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $28.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50-day moving average of $25.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.51. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $28.51.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. On average, equities research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.