Naples Money Management LLC Purchases New Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Naples Money Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 7,324 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $276,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 58.4% during the 4th quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $40.50. The stock had a trading volume of 24,693,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,784,156. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.18. The firm has a market cap of $170.27 billion, a PE ratio of 14.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.57%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications 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).