AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Purchased by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,548,362 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 529,265 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.08% of AT&T worth $88,500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in T. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of AT&T by 102,614.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 823,706,558 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,138,120,000 after buying an additional 822,904,620 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in AT&T by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 523,127,988 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,070,214,000 after acquiring an additional 1,985,371 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in AT&T by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 287,304,512 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,530,602,000 after buying an additional 1,567,008 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Co boosted its holdings in AT&T by 0.7% in the first quarter. Newport Trust Co now owns 196,653,545 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,785,581,000 after purchasing an additional 1,337,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,387,114 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,581,839,000 after acquiring an additional 530,478 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of AT&T from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on AT&T from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 20th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.90.

AT&T Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of T stock opened at $15.88 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $20.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.10 and its 200-day moving average is $15.26. The stock has a market cap of $113.54 billion, a PE ratio of -10.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.60.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The technology company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.02. AT&T had a positive return on equity of 16.26% and a negative net margin of 9.29%. The firm had revenue of $30.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 6th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently -72.08%.

About AT&T

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, and carrying cases and hands-free devices through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.