Bleakley Financial Group LLC Sells 6,670 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 258,842 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,670 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $5,894,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in AT&T by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 2,326,904 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 30,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Talbot Financial LLC acquired a new stake in AT&T in the third quarter worth about $7,438,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on T. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. DZ Bank raised AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.21.

AT&T Stock Performance

NYSE T opened at $24.48 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $22.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.59. 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 quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend 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.