Sterling Investment Management LLC Makes New $846,000 Investment in Telefonica SA $TEF

Sterling Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Telefonica SA (NYSE:TEF) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 166,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $846,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TEF. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Telefonica by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,752,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,166,000 after buying an additional 265,090 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Telefonica in the second quarter valued at approximately $438,000. Carrera Capital Advisors purchased a new position in Telefonica in the second quarter worth approximately $5,440,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its position in Telefonica by 340.2% in the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 206,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $961,000 after acquiring an additional 159,319 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in Telefonica by 46.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 182,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $953,000 after acquiring an additional 58,061 shares during the last quarter. 1.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TEF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup lowered Telefonica to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Telefonica in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Telefonica from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. New Street Research downgraded shares of Telefonica from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $3.83 price objective on shares of Telefonica in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Telefonica presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and an average target price of $4.02.

Telefonica Price Performance

Shares of TEF opened at $4.08 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.94, a PEG ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 0.27. Telefonica SA has a fifty-two week low of $3.89 and a fifty-two week high of $5.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $4.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.94.

Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $10.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9 billion. Telefonica had a negative net margin of 5.23% and a positive return on equity of 8.54%. On average, research analysts forecast that Telefonica SA will post 0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Telefonica Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be given a $0.1731 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 17th. This represents a yield of 856.0%. Telefonica’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -60.98%.

About Telefonica

Telefónica, SA is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid. Founded in 1924 as Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España, it has grown into one of the world’s largest telecommunications groups. Telefónica provides a broad range of communications services to residential and business customers, including mobile and fixed-line telephony, broadband internet, and pay-TV. The company also develops and sells network infrastructure and related services to support connectivity at scale.

Beyond traditional voice and data services, Telefónica has expanded into digital and IT services aimed at enterprise customers and public-sector clients.