AQR Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. $T

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AT&T Inc. by 4.5% in Q1, holding a total of 18,694,708 shares valued at approximately $528.7 million.
• AT&T's recent earnings report showed a profit of $0.54 per share, exceeding analyst estimates, with a revenue of $30.85 billion, which is a 3.4% year-over-year increase.
• AT&T recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2775 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 3.8%.

AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 4.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,694,708 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 802,028 shares during the quarter. AT&T makes up approximately 0.5% of AQR Capital Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.26% of AT&T worth $528,686,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC increased its position in AT&T by 182.1% during the 1st quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC now owns 993 shares of the technology company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in AT&T during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Core Alternative Capital increased its position in AT&T by 125.4% during the 1st quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 1,021 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in AT&T during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

T has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $31.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of AT&T in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Hsbc Global Res lowered AT&T from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on AT&T from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. HSBC lowered AT&T from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $30.40.

AT&T Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of AT&T stock opened at $29.07 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $207.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.57. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.92 and a fifty-two week high of $29.65.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $30.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.44 billion. AT&T had a return on equity of 13.36% and a net margin of 10.29%.The company's revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.2775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. AT&T's payout ratio is 63.07%.

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.

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