Beacon Investment Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Beacon Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 22,644 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,987 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $516,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,637,914,000 after acquiring an additional 6,220,442 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in AT&T by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during 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 buying an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $27.12 on Monday. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $16.17 and a one year high of $29.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.20, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on T shares. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.50 to $29.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.24.

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.