Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Has $361,000 Stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,525 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 687 shares during the quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $361,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of T. Carmel Capital Partners LLC raised its stake 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 worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625 shares in the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton acquired a new position in AT&T during the third quarter worth $30,000. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in AT&T during the third quarter worth $30,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA raised its stake in AT&T by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 2,322 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Western Pacific Wealth Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. 57.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank raised their target price on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, TheStreet upgraded AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.81.

AT&T Stock Up 1.0 %

AT&T stock traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $16.75. The stock had a trading volume of 37,852,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,190,348. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.58. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.43 and a 1-year high of $18.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.68.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The business had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.