Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Bought by Sovereign Financial Group Inc.

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 43.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,628 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 3,515 shares during the period. Sovereign Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 50.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 41,876 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,357,000 after buying an additional 14,090 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 4.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 22,877 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $741,000 after acquiring an additional 943 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $2,951,000. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 96.5% in the third quarter. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC now owns 15,972 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 7,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 48,662 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,577,000 after purchasing an additional 2,045 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.83 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $171.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.51%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).