AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Sold by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 306,254 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,936 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $6,973,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of T. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AT&T by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after buying an additional 1,149,688 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,148,689,000 after acquiring an additional 1,569,374 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 43.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602,586 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on T. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AT&T to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of 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 given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock opened at $22.30 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.33. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $24.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market cap of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. AT&T’s 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.