J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Buys 112,732 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 44.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 367,645 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 112,732 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $6,169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 47,356 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,119,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares in the last quarter. SMH Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. SMH Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 31,771 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $585,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Kahn Brothers Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Kahn Brothers Group Inc. now owns 17,329 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $319,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA increased its stake in AT&T by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 2,322 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JB Capital LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 26,620 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 614 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup upped their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Wolfe Research raised AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com lowered AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, TheStreet raised AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.68.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock traded up $0.18 on Friday, reaching $16.51. The company had a trading volume of 45,814,895 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,577,504. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $18.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company’s fifty day moving average is $17.00 and its 200 day moving average is $16.49. The company has a market cap of $118.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.42, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.01). AT&T had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 15.39%. The business had revenue of $32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 56.63%.

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.