Short Interest in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Declines By 16.3%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) saw a large drop in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 88,210,000 shares, a drop of 16.3% from the December 31st total of 105,350,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 36,090,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AT&T by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T by 41.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,947,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $168,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,904 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its holdings in AT&T by 15.8% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 15,769,707 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $346,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,016 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in AT&T by 112.9% in the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 2,916,698 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,167,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546,679 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in AT&T by 7.5% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 17,218,490 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $378,807,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,330 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on T shares. Oppenheimer started coverage on AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.11.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE T traded down $0.28 on Friday, hitting $23.74. 40,341,358 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 35,177,680. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.92 and a 200-day moving average of $21.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. AT&T has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $24.98. The stock has a market cap of $170.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.59.

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, 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%. Analysts expect that AT&T will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 74.50%.

AT&T Company 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.