California Public Employees Retirement System Has $574.28 Million Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,220,919 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 4,240,441 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in AT&T were worth $574,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,667,000 after acquiring an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,858,418,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on T. DZ Bank raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.79.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of T stock opened at $28.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.70 and a 200-day moving average of $23.53. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $28.51. The company has a market cap of $202.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

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.