Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Lowers Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lessened its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,934 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,320 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $284,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 85,003.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,414,568,000 after purchasing an additional 76,746,649 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter valued at $1,229,499,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 185.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after acquiring an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 130.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after acquiring an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,018,462,000 after purchasing an additional 29,769,976 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 13th. Citigroup increased their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Wolfe Research upgraded AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.61.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $17.64. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,363,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,582,320. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.97, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $13.43 and a fifty-two week high of $19.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.26.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.44 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 11.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

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.