CWS Financial Advisors LLC Has $704,000 Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

CWS Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,523 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 907 shares during the quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $704,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter worth approximately $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $530,576,000 after purchasing an additional 10,300,369 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $357,398,000 after buying an additional 8,695,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 20.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,434,572,000 after buying an additional 5,392,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Arete Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.35.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of VZ opened at $44.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $187.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.34, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.01. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $34.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.47 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.17%.

Verizon Communications 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).