AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Acquired by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 11.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,339,530 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 137,709 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $30,501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in AT&T by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 1.9% during the 3rd 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,057,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,208,123,000 after purchasing an additional 414,984 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 33,963,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $753,318,000 after purchasing an additional 5,614,168 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.74.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock opened at $27.15 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $24.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.85 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $27.97.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 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.