GFS Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

GFS Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 10.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,270 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 17,335 shares during the quarter. GFS Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $3,399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of T. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 2.3% in 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 41.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its position in shares of AT&T by 15.8% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $346,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,016 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 7.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,807,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,330 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Price Performance

AT&T stock opened at $23.74 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.66. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.98. The company has a market capitalization of $170.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.68%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on T. UBS Group raised their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. 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 research report on Thursday, January 16th. New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.11.

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.