Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Sells 700 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. reduced its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,201 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,341,693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of AT&T by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 60,109,127 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,689,000 after buying an additional 1,569,374 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,558,884 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $985,307,000 after buying an additional 1,007,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in AT&T by 43.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,853,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,563,000 after buying an additional 6,602,586 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of T stock opened at $22.30 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $159.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.59. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $24.03. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.31.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $30.20 billion during 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%. AT&T’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 90.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

T has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised AT&T from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.83.

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.