Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Has $45.47 Million Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lowered its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 22.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,607,912 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 470,206 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $45,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth 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. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $1,858,418,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on T. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AT&T from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. BNP Paribas raised AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, TD Securities boosted their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.71.

AT&T Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $28.09 on Friday. 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 50-day moving average of $27.32 and a 200-day moving average of $25.45. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.42 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The stock has a market cap of $202.12 billion, a PE ratio of 18.85, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.41.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. The business had revenue of $30.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.10%.

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.