American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 1,892,449 Shares of AT&T Inc. $T

American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 24.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,538,038 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,892,449 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of AT&T worth $276,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of T. Private Management Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 723.3% during the second quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 110,193 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,189,000 after purchasing an additional 96,808 shares in the last quarter. Cowa LLC grew its position in AT&T by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 53,102 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares in the last quarter. Camden National Bank increased its stake in AT&T by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Camden National Bank now owns 26,574 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $769,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $549,000. Finally, New World Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 68.1% during the 2nd quarter. New World Advisors LLC now owns 17,358 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $502,000 after buying an additional 7,033 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of AT&T from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (up previously from $31.00) on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.64.

AT&T Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $25.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.01. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $21.38 and a 52-week high of $29.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $26.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.48.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 17.87%.The firm had revenue of $30.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 36.04%.

About AT&T

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.