Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Decreases Stock Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lowered its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,797 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $587,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the third quarter worth $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE increased its position in shares of AT&T by 169.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 1,338 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AT&T during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in AT&T in the second quarter worth about $30,000. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded down $0.20 on Friday, hitting $21.70. 14,943,401 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,970,063. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $22.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.18. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $24.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.64, a PEG ratio of 3.60 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. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.50 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. Research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.19 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. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.12%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is 90.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.76.

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.