Securian Asset Management Inc. Trims Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Securian Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 385,641 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 10,933 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $8,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of T. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 4,986.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,913,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $225,741,000 after acquiring an additional 9,719,036 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in AT&T by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 33,963,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $753,318,000 after purchasing an additional 5,614,168 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in AT&T by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on T. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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 note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.74.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $26.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.94 and a 1-year high of $27.97. The company has a market capitalization of $186.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.94.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

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.