Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,220 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the quarter. Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,685,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987,691 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 81.3% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,604,493 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $540,193,000 after purchasing an additional 4,756,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 195.5% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,928,310 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $219,926,000 after purchasing an additional 4,584,012 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded up $0.38 during trading on Monday, hitting $40.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,440,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,791,131. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $40.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.05. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $168.59 billion, a PE ratio of 14.53, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.08. The firm had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.38%.

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).