Kempner Capital Management Inc. Lowers Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Kempner Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 50.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 101,978 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 102,233 shares during the quarter. Kempner Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,322,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the second quarter valued at $18,285,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in AT&T during the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in AT&T by 9.8% in the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,989,100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,012,000 after buying an additional 178,100 shares during the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 4.7% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 44,098 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $843,000 after buying an additional 1,982 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashburton Jersey Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T during the second quarter valued at approximately $418,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Down 0.8 %

T opened at $24.04 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $172.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $22.89 and its 200 day moving average is $21.57. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $24.98.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 74.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on T shares. Barclays upped their price objective on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. New Street Research raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.11.

About AT&T

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.