B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Sells 169,519 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG reduced its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 43.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 221,900 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 169,519 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in AT&T were worth $5,053,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,858,418,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 4,986.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $225,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,719,036 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $14,637,914,000 after buying an additional 6,220,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after buying an additional 5,649,277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AT&T from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.00.

AT&T Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:T opened at $28.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.59. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $28.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.01, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. Analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

AT&T 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.