LVW Advisors LLC Has $1.82 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

LVW Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,431 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,362 shares during the quarter. LVW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,817,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth $3,376,000. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 1,934.5% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $48,503,000 after buying an additional 1,026,930 shares in the last quarter. Burney Co. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 30.4% during the 4th quarter. Burney Co. now owns 186,621 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $7,463,000 after acquiring an additional 43,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $92,445,000 after acquiring an additional 57,583 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $38.86 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).