Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. $TDS Shares Sold by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its stake in shares of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS) by 95.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,537 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 287,992 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Telephone and Data Systems were worth $570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Telephone and Data Systems by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,392,050 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $262,072,000 after buying an additional 101,482 shares during the period. Carronade Capital Management LP grew its stake in Telephone and Data Systems by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Carronade Capital Management LP now owns 4,203,594 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $172,347,000 after buying an additional 523,094 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Telephone and Data Systems by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,049,385 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $166,025,000 after buying an additional 58,439 shares during the period. Oaktree Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Telephone and Data Systems in the third quarter worth $144,732,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Telephone and Data Systems by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,415,553 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $99,053,000 after acquiring an additional 66,814 shares in the last quarter. 80.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on TDS shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Telephone and Data Systems from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Telephone and Data Systems from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Telephone and Data Systems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.33.

Telephone and Data Systems Stock Down 2.7%

TDS stock opened at $36.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.11 and a beta of 0.30. Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.94 and a 1-year high of $49.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 3.43 and a quick ratio of 3.42.

Telephone and Data Systems (NYSE:TDS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.87) by $1.98. Telephone and Data Systems had a net margin of 6.15% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The business had revenue of $309.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $313.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.09) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Telephone and Data Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 16th were issued a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 16th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Telephone and Data Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.19%.

Telephone and Data Systems Company Profile

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc (NYSE: TDS) is a diversified telecommunications company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides a broad array of communications services, including wireless voice and data, wireline broadband and voice, cable television, and managed IT and cloud solutions. Its two primary operating units—TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular—serve residential, business and wholesale customers across the United States.

TDS Telecom focuses on delivering broadband internet, digital voice, video and data communications services in primarily rural and suburban markets.