LPL Financial LLC Has $206.81 Million Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

LPL Financial LLC raised its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 5.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,400,282 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 475,614 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $206,806,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of T. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at $23,888,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in AT&T by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. Talbot Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the third quarter worth about $7,438,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of AT&T by 12.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,641,856 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,486,000 after purchasing an additional 288,093 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE T opened at $23.03 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $23.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $21.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.59. 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 (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.82%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.40.

AT&T Company Profile

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.