Grove Bank & Trust Raises Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Grove Bank & Trust increased its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,434 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,153 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in AT&T were worth $283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of AT&T by 43.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in AT&T by 1,901.0% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,166,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,518,000 after acquiring an additional 3,008,549 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $346,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152,016 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup increased their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Performance

T stock opened at $22.30 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $24.03. The firm has a market cap of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors 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 yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

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.