Empire Life Investments Inc. Decreases Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Empire Life Investments Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 40.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 533,867 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 363,702 shares during the period. Empire Life Investments Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $12,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in T. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at about $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after buying an additional 104,700 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,326,904 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 18.3% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 195,991 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,312,000 after buying an additional 30,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of AT&T by 7.2% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 396,958 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,928,000 after buying an additional 26,706 shares during the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AT&T Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE T opened at $25.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.99. 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 one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $25.93. The firm has a market cap of $185.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.37, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.59.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. Equities research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.29%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on T shares. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of 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. New Street Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.33.

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.