ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC Reduces Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,291 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,367 shares during the quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in AT&T by 130.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,884,000 after buying an additional 32,558,342 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in AT&T by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $519,070,000 after buying an additional 9,518,478 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,227,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $393,931,000 after buying an additional 6,137,909 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,739,648 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $221,242,000 after acquiring an additional 4,432,136 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

T has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note 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 note on Monday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:T traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $16.85. The stock had a trading volume of 24,023,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,324,028. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $120.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.43 and a 1-year high of $18.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.64.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The firm had revenue of $30.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio 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.