Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Raises Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. $T

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC grew its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 61.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 62,908 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 23,858 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,777,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Balefire LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Balefire LLC now owns 29,279 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $827,000 after buying an additional 733 shares in the last quarter. Country Club Bank raised its position in AT&T by 2.2% during the third quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 26,894 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $755,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the period. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 2.0% during the third quarter. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. now owns 76,173 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares in the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group grew its position in shares of AT&T by 16.3% in the third quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 31,278 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 4,375 shares during the period. Finally, Acropolis Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 6.7% in the third quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 24,931 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $721,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on T. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of AT&T from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Williams Trading set a $33.00 target price on AT&T in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on AT&T from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.55.

AT&T Trading Down 0.5%

T opened at $24.24 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.38 and a 52 week high of $29.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.17. The firm has a market cap of $171.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.38.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 12th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 12th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.04%.

AT&T 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.