AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Sold by Valmark Advisers Inc.

Valmark Advisers Inc. lowered its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,068 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,019 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of T. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after acquiring an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in AT&T by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,543,563 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,467,000 after acquiring an additional 325,073 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in AT&T by 15.8% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $346,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152,016 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, New Street Research raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.33.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of T opened at $26.07 on Wednesday. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $26.18. 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 $187.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.50, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $23.28 and a 200-day moving average of $22.12.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.50%.

AT&T Company 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.