Bayesian Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 20,500 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bayesian Capital Management LP bought a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 20,500 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $860,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 59.8% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 37,433 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,571,000 after purchasing an additional 14,012 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 766,733 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $32,172,000 after buying an additional 2,028 shares during the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 274.6% in the first quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co now owns 54,366 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,281,000 after acquiring an additional 39,853 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.1% during the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 134,706 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,652,000 after purchasing an additional 5,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 97,991 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,112,000 after purchasing an additional 3,086 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on VZ. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.68.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE VZ traded up $0.05 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $40.08. The stock had a trading volume of 9,083,254 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,830,438. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The firm had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.21 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).