Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 9,868 AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 9,868 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $166,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 85,003.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,414,568,000 after acquiring an additional 76,746,649 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,229,499,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $790,301,000 after buying an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,884,000 after buying an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,018,462,000 after buying an additional 29,769,976 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. TheStreet upgraded AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.68.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $16.51. The stock had a trading volume of 45,820,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,811,916. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.43 and a 12 month high of $18.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.09 billion, a PE ratio of 8.42, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.49.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.44 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 11.76%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. Analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.72%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.63%.

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.