SFE Investment Counsel Trims Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

SFE Investment Counsel decreased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 17.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 67,599 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 14,530 shares during the quarter. SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,134,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 85,003.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,414,568,000 after buying an additional 76,746,649 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $1,229,499,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 185.6% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in AT&T by 130.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,018,462,000 after purchasing an additional 29,769,976 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

T has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.68.

AT&T Stock Up 1.0 %

T traded up $0.16 on Thursday, hitting $16.28. 21,123,752 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,357,484. AT&T Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.43 and a twelve month high of $19.83. The company has a market cap of $116.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $17.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.48.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.01). AT&T had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 11.76%. The company had revenue of $32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share 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 paid 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 6.82%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 56.63%.

AT&T Profile

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.