Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 85,482 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 39.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 299,931 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 85,482 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $6,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 28,008 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $638,000 after purchasing an additional 6,838 shares in the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at about $11,795,000. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 89.2% during the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 67,045 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,527,000 after purchasing an additional 31,600 shares during the period. Everpar Advisors LLC increased its position in AT&T by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 13,124 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 39,099 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $890,000 after buying an additional 1,376 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $22.30 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.31. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on T. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Company 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.