Bleakley Financial Group LLC Purchases 16,499 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 6.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 265,512 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 16,499 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $5,841,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of T. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $270,581,000 after buying an additional 13,201,774 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 22.0% in the second quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $477,528,000 after purchasing an additional 4,511,725 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the second quarter valued at about $78,570,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on T shares. Scotiabank lowered shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.69.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock opened at $21.74 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $20.90 and a 200-day moving average of $18.93. 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 12 month low of $14.31 and a 12 month high of $22.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.60.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57. The company had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. AT&T’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio 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.