Altrius Capital Management Inc Buys 653 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 102,874 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 653 shares during the quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,878,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacifica Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 5,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $374,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 10,961 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Western Financial Corp CA grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 16,564 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $624,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating 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 company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ traded up $0.41 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $40.09. 19,438,627 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,153,176. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.61. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 6.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).