Lincoln National Corp Trims Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Lincoln National Corp lowered its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 173,945 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 5,651 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in AT&T were worth $2,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fielder Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth about $236,000. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp increased its position in shares of AT&T by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 13,252 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,106 shares during the period. Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $684,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its stake in shares of AT&T by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 557,388 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,353,000 after acquiring an additional 5,932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AT&T by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 67,340 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 7,235 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on T shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Wolfe Research raised shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AT&T presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:T traded up $0.09 on Tuesday, reaching $17.08. The stock had a trading volume of 27,743,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,812,934. AT&T Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.43 and a 12-month high of $18.16. The company has a market cap of $122.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $16.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

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

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued 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 dividend yield of 6.50%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

AT&T Profile

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.