Capital Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 981,998 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 31,374 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $22,360,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of AT&T by 1,379.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,159,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,581,000 after purchasing an additional 13,201,774 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 110.3% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,155,046 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $117,623,000 after buying an additional 3,228,888 shares during the period. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in AT&T by 1,901.0% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,166,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,518,000 after acquiring an additional 3,008,549 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on T. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.76.

AT&T Stock Performance

AT&T stock traded down $0.18 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $21.51. 8,991,572 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,951,148. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.24. The firm has a market cap of $154.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. 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.