Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Sells 1,776 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. reduced its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 2.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,195 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,776 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in AT&T were worth $1,647,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of T. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AT&T by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 624,994,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,999,912,000 after purchasing an additional 2,588,539 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 81,076,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,549,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,592,123 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AT&T in the fourth quarter worth $1,118,288,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in AT&T by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 47,377,267 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $794,978,000 after acquiring an additional 1,137,792 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its position in AT&T by 1.1% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 29,777,030 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $524,076,000 after purchasing an additional 333,787 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Price Performance

T opened at $20.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.47 billion, a PE ratio of 11.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.59. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $19.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.00. AT&T Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.12 and a 52-week high of $21.00.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. AT&T had a net margin of 10.41% and a return on equity of 14.16%. The business had revenue of $29.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.29%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on AT&T from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AT&T from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of AT&T from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of AT&T from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.06.

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.