Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Purchases 5,932 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 557,388 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,932 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in AT&T were worth $9,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of AT&T by 16,250.0% during the third quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 1,625 shares during the period. Lipe & Dalton purchased a new stake in AT&T in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in AT&T in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA grew its holdings in AT&T by 35.3% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 2,322 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 606 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 3,202.4% in the third quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,708 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $16.99. 24,179,539 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,930,922. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.82 billion, a PE ratio of 9.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.43 and a 12-month high of $18.16. The business’s 50-day moving average is $16.98 and its 200-day moving average is $16.68.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, April 29th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

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.