Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Sells 24,834 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 308,519 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 24,834 shares during the period. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $5,177,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AT&T by 185.6% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after buying an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of AT&T by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of AT&T by 38.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $519,070,000 after purchasing an additional 9,518,478 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,227,124 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $393,931,000 after buying an additional 6,137,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 43.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,739,648 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $221,242,000 after purchasing 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 Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on T shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of 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. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of AT&T in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded up $0.14 on Monday, hitting $16.99. The company had a trading volume of 23,359,160 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,930,715. The company has a market cap of $121.82 billion, a PE ratio of 9.15, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The business has a 50 day moving average of $16.97 and a 200 day moving average of $16.67. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.43 and a 52-week high of $18.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.53%. 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.