Weaver Consulting Group Has $1.02 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Weaver Consulting Group grew its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,305 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,948 shares during the period. Weaver Consulting Group’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VZ. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.0 %

VZ traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $41.24. The stock had a trading volume of 27,639,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,795,164. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. 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).