Heartland Bank & Trust Co Trims Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Heartland Bank & Trust Co cut its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,296 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,489 shares during the quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in AT&T were worth $485,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in T. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in AT&T in the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in 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 last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Talbot Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,438,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on T. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective 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. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Argus upgraded 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Up 0.7 %

T stock opened at $22.69 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $162.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $24.03. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

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.