Wedbush Securities Inc. Grows Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 217,336 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,179 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $4,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 26,161 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 48.6% during the fourth quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in AT&T by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 59,394 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,352,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the period. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. increased its position in AT&T by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. now owns 12,383 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northeast Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Northeast Investment Management now owns 51,198 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on T shares. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.21.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE T opened at $26.65 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $191.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $26.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.73. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

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.