Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC Takes $497,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 12,420 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $497,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VZ. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Verizon Communications by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 27,418,052 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,096,447,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,389 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 378,643 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $15,142,000 after acquiring an additional 40,474 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $10,915,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $14,100,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 20.6% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 755,190 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $30,200,000 after acquiring an additional 128,845 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $633,159.61. This trade represents a 40.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $212,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,500 shares of company stock worth $1,376,300. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on VZ shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.97 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.04. The stock has a market cap of $185.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.59 and a 12-month high of $47.36. 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 (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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.31 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.16%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.52%.

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).