Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC Increases Holdings in AT&T Inc. $T

Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 45.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 655,071 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 204,178 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $18,958,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Denali Advisors LLC raised its position in AT&T by 5.9% during the second quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 401,037 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,606,000 after acquiring an additional 22,394 shares in the last quarter. Tredje AP fonden boosted its position in AT&T by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,221,395 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,347,000 after purchasing an additional 21,720 shares in the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 324,104 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,380,000 after purchasing an additional 4,793 shares during the period. Kickstand Ventures LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $489,000. Finally, Sentry Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 153.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 22,095 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 13,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on T. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp upgraded AT&T from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.55.

AT&T Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $24.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.38 and a twelve month high of $29.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.20 billion, a PE ratio of 7.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $25.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.26.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. The business had revenue of $30.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.85 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 17.87%.The business’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.04%.

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.