Wright Investors Service Inc. Sells 21,019 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Wright Investors Service Inc. lowered its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 117,562 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 21,019 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in T. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AT&T by 85,003.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,414,568,000 after buying an additional 76,746,649 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,229,499,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after buying an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 130.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,018,462,000 after purchasing an additional 29,769,976 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of AT&T stock traded up $0.02 on Thursday, hitting $16.14. The company had a trading volume of 9,983,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,201,016. The stock has a market capitalization of $115.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $19.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.02 and a 200-day moving average of $16.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.44 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 15.39%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.88%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TheStreet upgraded AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.68.

AT&T Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.