PUREfi Wealth LLC Invests $340,000 in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

PUREfi Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 8,508 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 58.0% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $78,975,000 after purchasing an additional 644,761 shares during the period. Alpha Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth approximately $224,000. Creative Planning grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 861,988 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,712,000 after purchasing an additional 23,696 shares during the period. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.8% during the third 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 period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 102,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,592,000 after purchasing an additional 2,953 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Argus raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Ten 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $41.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $172.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.90, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $39.96 and its 200 day moving average is $41.55.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.61%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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).