Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $2.23 Million Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 133,008 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,153 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 31.2% in the 4th quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC now owns 42,112 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $707,000 after purchasing an additional 10,025 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,874 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after buying an additional 59,680 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $236,000. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp grew its holdings in AT&T by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 13,252 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,106 shares during the period. Finally, Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at $684,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of T traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $17.09. The stock had a trading volume of 28,082,469 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,812,934. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $122.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.69. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.43 and a twelve month high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 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 firm had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.50%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on T. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com cut AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research raised shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.81.

AT&T Company 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.