Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Sells 3,309 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 9.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 32,176 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,309 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $701,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in AT&T during the second quarter worth about $23,888,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of AT&T by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 41.4% in 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. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 30,281 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Up 1.2 %

AT&T stock opened at $22.30 on Monday. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $24.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.33.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Argus upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.83.

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.