National Pension Service Has $222.98 Million Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

National Pension Service increased its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,288,624 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 257,978 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.19% of AT&T worth $222,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sora Investors LLC bought a new stake in AT&T during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,265,000. Provence Wealth Management Group boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 55.8% during the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 16,217 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 5,807 shares in the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 3.1% during the third quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 38,929 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $585,000 after purchasing an additional 1,178 shares during the period. Retireful LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $1,163,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 46,265 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 5,161 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on T shares. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. TheStreet raised AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer raised AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of AT&T stock traded up $0.02 during trading on Thursday, reaching $17.13. 9,302,296 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,333,422. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.68. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.43 and a 1-year high of $18.16. The company has a market cap of $122.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.20, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.69.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.48%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

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.