Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Stake Lifted by Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 38.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,077 shares during the period. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $284,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after buying an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,882,164,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after buying an additional 2,015,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.36.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.7 %

VZ stock traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $39.52. The company had a trading volume of 3,558,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,112,969. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $166.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.75, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.41.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.73%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.25%.

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).