Wesbanco Bank Inc. Sells 18,624 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Wesbanco Bank Inc. cut its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 314,050 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 18,624 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $7,151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of T. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,563,000 after buying an additional 6,602,586 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 2.3% in 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 buying an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $346,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,016 shares during the period. Finally, Caxton Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 4,115.6% during the 2nd quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 2,151,025 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,106,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Argus upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

AT&T Stock Down 0.7 %

AT&T stock opened at $22.34 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $160.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.59. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $22.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

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 given 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 4.97%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.24%.

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.