Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. Buys New Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. purchased a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 11,049 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after buying an additional 2,588,539 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in AT&T by 5.6% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,328,528,000 after buying an additional 4,014,873 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,118,288,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $848,888,000 after purchasing an additional 798,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in AT&T by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $794,978,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,792 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on T shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.33.

AT&T Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:T traded down $0.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $19.37. 45,240,116 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 37,305,292. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $13.89 and a fifty-two week high of $19.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.58.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57. The firm had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.73%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.68%.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.