Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. Takes Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,801 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in AT&T by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 18.3% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of AT&T by 7.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 396,958 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,928,000 after buying an additional 26,706 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Argus raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.21.

AT&T Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE:T opened at $24.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $23.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.98.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

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.