Principle Wealth Partners LLC Sells 3,272 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Principle Wealth Partners LLC decreased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,641 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,272 shares during the quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $675,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of T. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd 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. National Pension Service increased its stake in AT&T by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $346,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,016 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in AT&T by 112.9% in the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 2,916,698 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,167,000 after buying an additional 1,546,679 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in AT&T by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,807,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,330 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.21.

AT&T Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of T opened at $25.16 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $180.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.90. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $25.18.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.50%.

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.