West Family Investments Inc. Has $864,000 Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

West Family Investments Inc. increased its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 70.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,961 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,680 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $864,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,057,676 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,123,000 after purchasing an additional 414,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its holdings 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 valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock opened at $26.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.75. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $27.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.15%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the topic of several analyst reports. DZ Bank upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.74.

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.