OFI Invest Asset Management Purchases Shares of 79,810 AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 79,810 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,755,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of T. Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in AT&T by 15.7% in the third quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,114,000 after purchasing an additional 6,853 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 81.6% in the third quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 25,703 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $565,000 after buying an additional 11,552 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the third quarter valued at about $718,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 62.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 194,924 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,288,000 after buying an additional 74,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Essex Savings Bank raised its holdings in AT&T by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Essex Savings Bank now owns 21,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on T. New Street Research raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.74.

AT&T Stock Performance

T opened at $27.15 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $194.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $27.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The business’s fifty day moving average is $24.30 and its 200-day moving average is $22.84.

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%. Sell-side analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s 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.