Kestra Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Kestra Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,980 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 604 shares during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $409,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 2.3% in the 3rd 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. FMR LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,467,000 after purchasing an additional 325,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake 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 valued at $346,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,016 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Argus upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.33.

AT&T Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE T opened at $26.23 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $188.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $26.35. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $23.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.20.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

AT&T Profile

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.