Calton & Associates Inc. Acquires 19,498 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Calton & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 53.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,181 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,498 shares during the period. Calton & Associates Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after purchasing an additional 13,201,774 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in AT&T by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,549,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in AT&T by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $477,528,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in AT&T in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $78,570,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Price Performance

T traded down $0.42 on Tuesday, hitting $21.24. 1,779,802 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,343,383. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $14.74 and a one year high of $22.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $152.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.01.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. The firm had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.05 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.23%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 63.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Scotiabank cut AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.69.

AT&T Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.