Victory Capital Management Inc. Cuts Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Victory Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,691,648 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 70,356 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.05% of AT&T worth $81,216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 0.4% during 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 buying an additional 2,588,539 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position 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 valued at $1,549,375,000 after buying an additional 5,592,123 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after buying an additional 1,007,228 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its position 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 valued at $575,070,000 after buying an additional 315,580 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Moffett Nathanson upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.40.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock opened at $22.30 on Thursday. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.52 and a 1 year high of $22.73. The company has a market cap of $160.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.79 and a 200 day moving average of $19.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 90.24%.

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.