Benedetti & Gucer Inc. Has $531,000 Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Benedetti & Gucer Inc. lowered its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 34.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,168 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 15,882 shares during the quarter. Benedetti & Gucer Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of T. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AT&T by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 622,406,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,443,980,000 after acquiring an additional 2,155,232 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 75,484,518 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,328,528,000 after purchasing an additional 4,014,873 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $848,888,000 after purchasing an additional 798,024 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $794,978,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,792 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on T. Scotiabank lifted their target price on AT&T from $22.50 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on AT&T in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.85.

AT&T Stock Performance

T stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $18.81. The stock had a trading volume of 37,919,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,227,980. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.43 and a 52 week high of $19.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $17.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $134.87 billion, a PE ratio of 10.11, a PEG ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.58.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.