Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Sells 538 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. reduced its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 52,272 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 538 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,478,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,719,723,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,644 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,667,000 after purchasing an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth about $1,858,418,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in AT&T by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 78,148,354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,779,438,000 after purchasing an additional 10,945,679 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on T. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $29.50 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price target (up previously from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.12.

AT&T Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $27.16 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.14 and a 1-year high of $29.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.39 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.63% and a net margin of 9.64%. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.10%.

AT&T Company Profile

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.