Pioneer Trust Bank N A OR Takes Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Pioneer Trust Bank N A OR acquired a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 8,837 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in T. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth $1,858,418,000. GQG Partners LLC grew 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 valued at $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 4,986.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $225,741,000 after buying an additional 9,719,036 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after buying an additional 6,220,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on T. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AT&T from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.21.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE T opened at $26.65 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $29.03. The stock has a market capitalization 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’s 50-day moving average is $26.26 and its 200 day moving average is $23.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

AT&T Announces Dividend

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