Fayez Sarofim & Co Buys 12,409 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Fayez Sarofim & Co lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 52.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,221 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 12,409 shares during the period. Fayez Sarofim & Co's holdings in AT&T were worth $825,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at $638,000. Senator Investment Group LP raised its position in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 2,765,000 shares of the technology company's stock worth $62,959,000 after acquiring an additional 15,000 shares in the last quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 2,744,039 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $62,482,000 after purchasing an additional 29,565 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its stake in AT&T by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 851,823 shares of the technology company's stock worth $19,405,000 after purchasing an additional 52,787 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in AT&T by 187.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 495,070 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $11,273,000 after buying an additional 322,709 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on T. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded AT&T from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on AT&T from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Cowen reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $28.62.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE T traded down $0.73 during trading on Friday, reaching $26.80. 37,042,995 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 36,510,786. 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 market capitalization of $192.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.39 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $26.96 and a 200-day moving average of $24.31.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $30.39 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. AT&T's dividend payout ratio is 68.10%.

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.