Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Purchases 27,970 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 32.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 113,685 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 27,970 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,173,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in T. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position 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 worth $1,549,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $575,070,000 after purchasing an additional 315,580 shares during the period. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AT&T by 22.0% in the second quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $477,528,000 after buying an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 9.0% in the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 20,072,613 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $383,588,000 after buying an additional 1,662,100 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $22.28 on Tuesday. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $14.12 and a one year high of $22.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $159.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.22.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The company had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on T shares. Daiwa America upgraded AT&T to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Scotiabank downgraded AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.31.

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.