Kidder Stephen W Buys 282 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Kidder Stephen W lifted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,682 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the period. Kidder Stephen W’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $267,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VZ. Rench Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 102,868 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,620,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,856,315 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $83,367,000 after purchasing an additional 19,899 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 74.2% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,012 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 1,709 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.9% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 261,702 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,753,000 after buying an additional 41,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth approximately $13,891,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 price target (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Argus upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.82.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $45.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $191.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $42.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.13. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.59 and a 1 year high of $47.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.94%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insider Activity

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at $596,439.20. This trade represents a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total transaction of $437,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at $633,159.61. This represents a 40.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 49,085 shares of company stock worth $2,020,895 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Verizon Communications

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).