Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC Has $3.93 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 41.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 87,567 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,536 shares during the quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,933,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at about $250,312,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after purchasing an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 112.6% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $273,507,000 after purchasing an additional 3,481,936 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $536,791,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 37.9% during the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $287,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,916,951 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.9 %

VZ traded down $0.36 during trading on Friday, reaching $41.77. 5,782,062 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,552,740. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.16 and its 200 day moving average is $41.33. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.31 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.84 billion, a PE ratio of 17.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.49%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. 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 report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

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).