Dover Advisors LLC Has $1.12 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Dover Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 41.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 24,788 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,290 shares during the quarter. Dover Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Everpar Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 23.3% in the first quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 20,062 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $910,000 after buying an additional 3,793 shares during the period. CRA Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.7% in the first quarter. CRA Financial Services LLC now owns 6,913 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $314,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the period. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.2% in the first quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,163 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $506,000 after buying an additional 1,472 shares during the period. IAG Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.8% in the first quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,189 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the period. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.1% in the first quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 237,350 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $10,766,000 after buying an additional 9,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.88, for a total transaction of $329,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 19,008 shares in the company, valued at $834,071.04. The trade was a 28.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last quarter. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research lowered Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $42.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $181.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 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 analysts’ expectations of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

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).