North Forty Two & Co. Acquires Shares of 7,111 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 7,111 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $284,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,174,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $232,389,000 after purchasing an additional 39,403 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. New England Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. New England Asset Management Inc. now owns 204,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,206,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the last quarter. Windle Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Windle Wealth LLC now owns 162,931 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $7,317,000 after purchasing an additional 7,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 125,611 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,641,000 after purchasing an additional 6,851 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Tigress Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. 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, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.11.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $44.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $41.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.97. The company has a market cap of $186.13 billion, a PE ratio of 10.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week 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 data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. Analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.13%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total transaction of $319,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6,590 shares in the company, valued at $262,809.20. This trade represents a 54.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $633,159.61. This trade represents a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 49,085 shares of company stock valued at $2,020,895. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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).