Newport Trust Company LLC Lowers Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Newport Trust Company LLC decreased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 197,976,579 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,848,977 shares during the period. AT&T comprises 9.5% of Newport Trust Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Newport Trust Company LLC owned about 2.76% of AT&T worth $3,783,332,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vantage Financial Partners LLC raised its position in AT&T by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 38,207 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $641,000 after acquiring an additional 7,762 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 31,130 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC raised its position in AT&T by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 27,770 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 1,194 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC raised its position in AT&T by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 27,253 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 4,870 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in AT&T by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 242,324 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,066,000 after acquiring an additional 17,601 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on T shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of AT&T to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.31.

AT&T Stock Performance

T opened at $21.35 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $153.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a fifty day moving average of $19.82 and a 200 day moving average of $18.30. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $14.12 and a fifty-two week high of $22.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.70.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.20%. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

AT&T Company 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.