Kovack Advisors Inc. Grows Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 157,324 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 6,077 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,640,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 130.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after buying an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in AT&T by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $519,070,000 after buying an additional 9,518,478 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 30.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,227,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $393,931,000 after buying an additional 6,137,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,739,648 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $221,242,000 after buying an additional 4,432,136 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded up $0.17 during trading on Friday, hitting $16.75. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 37,842,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,393,957. The company has a 50-day moving average of $16.96 and a 200-day moving average of $16.56. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.43 and a 12 month high of $18.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $119.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.57.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on T. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.81.

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.