Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI Cuts Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI decreased its holdings in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 28,882 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI’s holdings in AT&T were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,637,914,000 after buying an additional 6,220,442 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after buying an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after buying an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,858,418,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of AT&T in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.71.

AT&T Price Performance

NYSE:T opened at $28.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $204.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.54. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.42 and a 1-year high of $29.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $30.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.39 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. AT&T’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.10%.

About AT&T

AT&T, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of telecommunications and technology services. It operates through the Communications and Latin America segments. The Communications segment offers wireless, wireline telecom, and broadband services to businesses and consumers located in the US and businesses globally.