Capital Investment Counsel Inc Acquires 1,333 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc raised its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,900 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in AT&T were worth $250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Vantage Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in AT&T by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 38,207 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $641,000 after purchasing an additional 7,762 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter worth approximately $320,000. Marco Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 39,282 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $659,000 after acquiring an additional 2,229 shares in the last quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated lifted its position in AT&T by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 88,869 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,491,000 after acquiring an additional 6,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Convergence Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 37.1% in the fourth quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 138,144 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,318,000 after acquiring an additional 37,410 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on T shares. Oppenheimer raised AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays raised shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE T opened at $17.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.43 and a 52 week high of $18.16. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.60.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.52%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

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.