Ascent Group LLC Has $3.51 Million Stock Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Ascent Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - Free Report) by 22.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 154,289 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 28,310 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC's holdings in AT&T were worth $3,513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of T. Secure Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 44,599 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,060 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 48,579 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,106,000 after buying an additional 10,188 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 90,323 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,057,000 after buying an additional 20,272 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth $391,000. Finally, Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of AT&T by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,231 shares of the technology company's stock worth $552,000 after buying an additional 1,741 shares during the period. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of AT&T in a research report on Monday, April 7th. TD Securities raised their target price on AT&T from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays raised their target price on AT&T from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on AT&T from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Williams Trading set a $30.00 price objective on AT&T in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AT&T has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $28.71.

AT&T Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:T traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $27.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 32,250,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,778,827. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.47, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $27.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.18. AT&T Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.11 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AT&T (NYSE:T - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $30.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.39 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. AT&T's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.