Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC Has $392,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 30.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,394 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,605 shares during the period. Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $392,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $39.68. 18,245,309 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,159,520. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The business has a fifty day moving average of $40.46 and a 200 day moving average of $38.51. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $166.83 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.41.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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).