Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Invests $258,000 in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,310 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in AT&T by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 475,114 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,080,000 after acquiring an additional 21,233 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 8.4% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,008,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,265,000 after purchasing an additional 77,932 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 350,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,706,000 after purchasing an additional 18,000 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 55.8% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $508,000 after buying an additional 9,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Certified Advisory Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Certified Advisory Corp now owns 29,367 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 548 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE:T opened at $22.49 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29, a PEG ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.37. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.93%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

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.