AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 19.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 47,906,723 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 11,336,606 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.67% of AT&T worth $1,090,836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in AT&T by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,651,898 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,085,034,000 after acquiring an additional 7,347,354 shares in the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in AT&T by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,304,302 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,699,000 after buying an additional 93,802 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,615,824 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,407,000 after buying an additional 50,938 shares during the period. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD purchased a new position in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at $455,000. Finally, Oribel Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth $41,938,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

T has been the subject of several research reports. BNP Paribas upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Argus raised shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.21.

AT&T Stock Down 6.8 %

NYSE:T opened at $26.65 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $191.27 billion, a PE ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 74.50%.

AT&T Profile

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.