Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 4,605 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,416 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 4,605 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at $14,700,000. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in AT&T by 0.5% in the 3rd 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. increased its stake in AT&T by 41.4% in the 3rd 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. Consolidated Planning Corp increased its stake in AT&T by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 320,089 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,288,000 after buying an additional 21,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in AT&T by 18.3% in the 3rd 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. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AT&T Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of T opened at $26.19 on Thursday. AT&T Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.94 and a 52 week high of $27.97. The firm has a market cap of $188.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.72. 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 (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. On average, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

T has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AT&T in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.74.

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.