AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Shares Sold by Sovereign Financial Group Inc.

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,173 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,677 shares during the quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,589,421 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $848,888,000 after purchasing an additional 798,024 shares during the period. Northern Financial Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Financial Advisors Inc now owns 31,288 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,637 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 133,008 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,232,000 after purchasing an additional 9,153 shares during the period. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC raised its position in AT&T by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC now owns 42,112 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $707,000 after acquiring an additional 10,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in AT&T by 31.4% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,874 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after acquiring an additional 59,680 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on T. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet upgraded AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays upgraded AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of T traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $17.09. 28,082,469 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,812,934. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.68. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.43 and a 12-month high of $18.16. The company has a market cap of $122.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.69.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.50%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.68%.

About AT&T

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.