Country Trust Bank Purchases 4,653 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Country Trust Bank raised its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 63.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,983 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,653 shares during the period. Country Trust Bank’s holdings in AT&T were worth $273,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in T. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the second quarter valued at about $18,285,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its position in shares of AT&T by 9.8% during the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,989,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,012,000 after purchasing an additional 178,100 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 4.7% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 44,098 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $843,000 after purchasing an additional 1,982 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashburton Jersey Ltd bought a new position in AT&T in the second quarter worth $418,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the topic of several analyst reports. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.11.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $24.04 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $24.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $172.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.13, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.59. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio 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.