Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Buys 1,206,330 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,206,330 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $378,807,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of T. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in AT&T by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its position in AT&T by 1.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $575,070,000 after buying an additional 315,580 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the subject of several analyst reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.40.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $22.31 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.60. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.51 and a fifty-two week high of $22.73. The firm has a market cap of $160.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.98%. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 90.24%.

About AT&T

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.