Sovran Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 39,264 AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Sovran Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 39,264 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of T. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position 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 worth $399,467,000 after buying an additional 325,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,152,016 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of T opened at $25.16 on Wednesday. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $25.18. The company’s fifty day moving average is $23.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.90. The firm has a market cap of $180.50 billion, a PE ratio of 16.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. Analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on T. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. New Street Research raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.21.

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.