Romano Brothers AND Company Buys 19,015 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Romano Brothers AND Company increased its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 12.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 169,539 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 19,015 shares during the quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,443,980,000 after acquiring an additional 2,155,232 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,118,288,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% during 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $848,888,000 after buying an additional 798,024 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in AT&T by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $794,978,000 after buying an additional 1,137,792 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on T. Barclays upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE T traded up $0.36 on Friday, hitting $19.11. 52,825,162 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 33,874,564. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $17.57 and a 200-day moving average of $17.18. The stock has a market cap of $137.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.60. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.43 and a 52 week high of $19.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. AT&T’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

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.