Pitti Group Wealth Management LLC Has $375,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Pitti Group Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,941 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 809 shares during the period. Pitti Group Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 173.7% during the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $21,137,000 after purchasing an additional 413,869 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after acquiring an additional 1,616 shares during the period. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,677,000 after acquiring an additional 3,020 shares during the period. GFS Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth approximately $212,000. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $306,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was 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 $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $39.68. 18,246,244 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,678,804. The company has a market cap of $166.83 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. On average, equities 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 99.25%.

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).