Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 11,087 Shares of AT&T Inc. $T

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 126,501 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 11,087 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $3,661,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 651,044,650 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,411,543,000 after acquiring an additional 8,185,006 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in AT&T during the second quarter valued at about $5,266,758,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 17.7% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 113,957,259 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,222,711,000 after acquiring an additional 17,177,874 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 3.3% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 55,216,190 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,561,514,000 after acquiring an additional 1,783,363 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in AT&T by 2.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 53,339,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,508,411,000 after acquiring an additional 1,307,009 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group set a $33.00 price target on AT&T in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AT&T in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Scotiabank set a $30.25 price objective on AT&T and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on AT&T in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.75.

AT&T Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of T opened at $25.85 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $184.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.69, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.76. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $21.05 and a one year high of $29.79. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.88.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $30.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.44 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.36% and a net margin of 10.29%.AT&T’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.51 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 63.07%.

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.