Rench Wealth Management Inc. Acquires New Holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Rench Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 8,992 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of T. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in AT&T by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 642,859,644 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,637,914,000 after purchasing an additional 6,220,442 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AT&T by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 163,761,301 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,719,723,000 after buying an additional 2,640,644 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in AT&T by 37.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew 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 worth $1,948,943,000 after acquiring an additional 5,649,277 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AT&T in the 4th quarter worth about $1,858,418,000. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group upped their target price on AT&T from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank increased their price target on AT&T from $28.50 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price 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. BNP Paribas raised shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $28.50 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of AT&T from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.24.

AT&T Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:T opened at $27.22 on Tuesday. AT&T Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.94 and a 1-year high of $29.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $195.39 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.03.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.50%.

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.