Invera Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Invera Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 81.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,922 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,814 shares during the quarter. Invera Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nilsine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 346.9% during the first quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 24,512 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,029,000 after buying an additional 19,027 shares during the last quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 48,458 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,033,000 after purchasing an additional 13,794 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 408.4% in the first quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 277,345 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,637,000 after purchasing an additional 222,791 shares during the period. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.7% in the first quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.0% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,353,817 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $686,206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,757,208 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ traded up $0.42 during trading on Monday, hitting $40.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 19,838,559 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,158,041. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $168.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.67. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).