Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Reduces Position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC decreased its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 64,413 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 17,200 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AT&T by 48.6% in the fourth quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on T shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report 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 objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.21.

AT&T Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $26.80 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $192.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.99, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.94 and a 12-month high of $29.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. Analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.50%.

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.