Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,872 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 420 shares during the quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $201,000 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. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,760 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 21,568 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $889,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,383 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,715 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $156,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BCS Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. BCS Wealth Management now owns 11,141 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $43.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s fifty day moving average is $41.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.73. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $45.05.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The company had revenue of $32.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.21 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.18%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 101.12%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VZ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.66.

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).