Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,259 shares during the quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $336,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,396,167,000 after acquiring an additional 930,367 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,882,164,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,446,194,000 after buying an additional 2,015,139 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $39.68. The company had a trading volume of 18,246,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,678,804. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market cap of $166.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.51.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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).