Avaii Wealth Management LLC Has $250,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Avaii Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,631 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 372 shares during the quarter. Avaii Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 19.8% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 18,648 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 3,079 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 80.5% in the 3rd quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 21,173 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $742,000 after purchasing an additional 9,441 shares during the period. Sweet Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 111.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC now owns 12,512 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 6,598 shares during the period. Edmp Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Edmp Inc. now owns 34,014 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 5,020 shares during the period. Finally, Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $596,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $40.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Verizon Communications

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).