Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 7,843 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 22.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 42,239 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,843 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,532,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630,972 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in AT&T by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 60,986,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,341,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,149,688 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AT&T by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,057,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,208,123,000 after acquiring an additional 414,984 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of AT&T by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 21,282,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $468,217,000 after purchasing an additional 104,700 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on T shares. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on AT&T in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Argus upgraded shares of AT&T from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.74.

AT&T Trading Up 1.6 %

T stock opened at $27.15 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $194.85 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. AT&T Inc. has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $27.97. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $24.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.84. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.06. AT&T had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 13.97%. As a group, analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.50%.

AT&T Company Profile

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.