Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 8,158 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 8,158 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 363,824,525 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $14,549,343,000 after buying an additional 5,697,337 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 108,694,230 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,346,682,000 after buying an additional 7,421,148 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 96,823,092 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,862,441,000 after buying an additional 998,847 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $2,300,846,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 45,043,310 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,801,282,000 after buying an additional 4,951,733 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Argus raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of VZ opened at $43.38 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.59 and a 52 week high of $47.36. The firm has a market cap of $182.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. On average, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.25%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $633,159.61. The trade was a 40.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total transaction of $396,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $441,352.80. This represents a 47.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,300 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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).