Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV Acquires New Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 4,423 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 61.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,759,000 after acquiring an additional 16,704 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 13,928 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,451 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 725 shares during the last quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,154 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 10,968 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $439,000 after buying an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 target price (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at $1,550,859.84. The trade was a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.15 on Thursday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.59 and a 1 year high of $47.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.21. The company has a market cap of $177.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.04, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 19.66%. The company had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).