Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC Buys 443 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,781 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the period. Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,678,000 after acquiring an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 102,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,592,000 after acquiring an additional 2,953 shares in the last quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.9% in the second quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 973,547 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $40,149,000 after purchasing an additional 53,929 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 164.4% during the third quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 94,339 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,237,000 after purchasing an additional 58,657 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of VZ stock traded down $1.80 on Tuesday, hitting $41.90. The stock had a trading volume of 17,904,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,415,592. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.26 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.28. The firm has a market cap of $176.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.47%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 101.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.31.

About Verizon Communications

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).