Searle & CO. Sells 25,518 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Searle & CO. reduced its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 37.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,019 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 25,518 shares during the period. Searle & CO.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 16,250.0% during the third quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625 shares during the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton acquired a new stake in AT&T during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in AT&T in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA lifted its stake in AT&T by 35.3% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 2,322 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 606 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 3,202.4% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,708 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 2,626 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on T. TheStreet raised AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE:T traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $16.92. The stock had a trading volume of 39,349,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,369,152. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $13.43 and a one year high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The company had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. AT&T’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

AT&T Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.