Invesco Ltd. Grows Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 47,651,898 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,347,354 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,085,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of T. Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of AT&T by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,304,302 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,699,000 after buying an additional 93,802 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,615,824 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $36,407,000 after acquiring an additional 50,938 shares during the last quarter. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD acquired a new position in AT&T during the 4th quarter worth approximately $455,000. Oribel Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,938,000. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 55,085 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,254,000 after purchasing an additional 4,160 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Trading Down 6.8 %

Shares of T stock opened at $26.65 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $191.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.76.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Argus 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 research note on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.21.

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.