Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV) Shares Sold by O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 425,760 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 28,688 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Telefônica Brasil were worth $3,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in Telefônica Brasil by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 15,192,635 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $114,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,053,218 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,571,650 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $19,416,000 after buying an additional 114,266 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil by 67.6% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 912,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $6,887,000 after buying an additional 367,975 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Telefônica Brasil by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 326,954 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $3,413,000 after buying an additional 70,900 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Telefônica Brasil by 41.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 264,413 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,716,000 after acquiring an additional 77,005 shares in the last quarter. 5.16% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Telefônica Brasil Trading Up 3.4 %

NYSE VIV opened at $9.30 on Friday. Telefônica Brasil S.A. has a 52 week low of $7.47 and a 52 week high of $10.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $8.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $8.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.76.

Telefônica Brasil (NYSE:VIV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.01. Telefônica Brasil had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The firm had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Telefônica Brasil S.A. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Telefônica Brasil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.0215 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. This is a positive change from Telefônica Brasil’s previous dividend of $0.02. Telefônica Brasil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on VIV shares. New Street Research lowered shares of Telefônica Brasil from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Telefônica Brasil from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Barclays raised shares of Telefônica Brasil from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $11.80 to $11.50 in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Telefônica Brasil from $10.40 to $9.20 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Telefônica Brasil from $10.60 to $9.20 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.97.

About Telefônica Brasil

Telefônica Brasil SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mobile telecommunications company in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, 4.5G, and 5G, as well as mobile value-added and wireless roaming services.