O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Acquires 425,655 Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) by 30.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,828,239 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 425,655 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AT&T were worth $41,629,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AT&T by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after buying an additional 6,220,442 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 161,120,657 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,532,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,630,972 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,779,385 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,667,000 after acquiring an additional 26,280,866 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of AT&T by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 85,592,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,948,943,000 after purchasing an additional 5,649,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AT&T during the fourth quarter worth $1,858,418,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

AT&T Stock Down 0.0 %

AT&T stock opened at $28.20 on Friday. AT&T Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.94 and a 12 month high of $28.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.53.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last issued 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2775 per share. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $19.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank upped their target price on AT&T from $26.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. New Street Research upgraded AT&T from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on AT&T from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.79.

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.