Logan Capital Management Inc. Sells 77,767 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Logan Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 844,869 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 77,767 shares during the quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $18,587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of T. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after buying an additional 5,592,123 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after buying an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in AT&T by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,148,689,000 after buying an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in AT&T by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $985,307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,228 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on T shares. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AT&T in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.00.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE T traded down $0.03 on Friday, hitting $23.33. 1,316,126 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 35,382,637. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.47 and a 200-day moving average of $20.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $167.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.76%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.24%.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.