AIA Group Ltd Acquires 9,454 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 325,436 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,454 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in AT&T were worth $7,410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after acquiring an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 4,986.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $225,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,719,036 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $28.20 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $25.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.54. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $28.51. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $202.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on T. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.79.

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.