Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Cuts Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. cut its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 623,298 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 77,271 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in AT&T were worth $10,459,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of T. Newport Trust Company LLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 0.3% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 75,158,354 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,128,878,000 after buying an additional 1,828,237 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 32,558,342 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew 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 valued at $790,301,000 after acquiring an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $848,888,000 after acquiring an additional 798,024 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on T shares. Scotiabank upped their price objective on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AT&T from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer raised shares of AT&T from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of AT&T stock traded up $0.08 on Monday, hitting $17.25. 28,012,993 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,146,129. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm's 50-day moving average is $16.99 and its 200 day moving average is $16.73. The stock has a market cap of $123.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.26, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.43 and a 52-week high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The business had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T's dividend payout ratio is presently 59.68%.

AT&T Profile

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.

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