Portside Wealth Group LLC Decreases Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Portside Wealth Group LLC reduced its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 101,027 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,917 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in T. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 43.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after acquiring an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in AT&T by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in AT&T by 110.3% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 6,155,046 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $117,623,000 after purchasing an additional 3,228,888 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1,901.0% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,166,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,518,000 after buying an additional 3,008,549 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after buying an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on T shares. Barclays increased their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $22.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.94 and a 1-year high of $24.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $22.79 and a 200-day moving average of $21.31. The company has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

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.