QRG Capital Management Inc. Acquires 121,702 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,742,080 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 121,702 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $39,667,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in AT&T by 7.1% during 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 during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position 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 period. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in AT&T by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after acquiring an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $399,467,000 after acquiring an additional 325,073 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. 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 note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays boosted their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.33.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T stock opened at $26.60 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.46. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $27.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.90 billion, a PE ratio of 17.85, a PEG ratio of 3.00 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 (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 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.