Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC Lowers Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 56.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,678 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 24,032 shares during the period. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP purchased a new position in AT&T in the second quarter valued at $23,888,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 30,281 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Price Performance

AT&T stock opened at $22.30 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $24.03. The company has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.98%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on T shares. Barclays increased their target price on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price 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. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.83.

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.