Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Decreases Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lowered its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,018 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 650 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $706,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in AT&T by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in AT&T by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after acquiring an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.5% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 28,113,880 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $537,256,000 after purchasing an additional 675,082 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $21.56 on Tuesday. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $22.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.26. The company has a market capitalization of $154.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released 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. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.15%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on T. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays increased their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.76.

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.