AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Stake Lessened by AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC

AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,930 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 868 shares during the period. AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after acquiring an additional 2,588,539 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in AT&T by 7.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after buying an additional 5,592,123 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AT&T during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,118,288,000. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 30,092,610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $575,070,000 after buying an additional 315,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thornburg Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in AT&T by 22.0% during the second quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,988,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $477,528,000 after buying an additional 4,511,725 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE:T opened at $21.45 on Thursday. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $14.12 and a 1 year high of $21.86. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.80 billion, a PE ratio of 11.53, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The business had revenue of $29.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. AT&T’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.17%. AT&T’s payout ratio is presently 59.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on T shares. Daiwa America upgraded shares of AT&T to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.31.

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.