Merit Financial Group LLC Acquires 85,482 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 39.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 299,931 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 85,482 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in AT&T were worth $6,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 4.4% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 406,190 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,762,000 after purchasing an additional 17,001 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in AT&T by 30.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 317,047 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,059,000 after buying an additional 74,764 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in AT&T by 110.3% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,155,046 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $117,623,000 after acquiring an additional 3,228,888 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,764 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $798,000 after acquiring an additional 621 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,876,014 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $54,961,000 after acquiring an additional 202,159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AT&T to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $25.83.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded up $0.28 during trading on Friday, hitting $22.30. 33,632,584 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,784,102. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $22.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $24.03. The company has a market cap of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. AT&T's payout ratio is 90.24%.

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.