Abbrea Capital LLC Reduces Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Abbrea Capital LLC reduced its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 22.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,464 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,570 shares during the quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of T. Newport Trust Company LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 199,998,040 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,003,971,000 after purchasing an additional 673,043 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in AT&T by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,128,878,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828,237 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,270,173 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $905,258,000 after purchasing an additional 334,222 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in AT&T by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised shares of AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:T traded down $0.23 on Thursday, hitting $16.58. The company had a trading volume of 46,652,863 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,434,164. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.54. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $18.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.57.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 15.39%. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.69%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.63%.

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.