DGS Capital Management LLC Purchases 4,243 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 26.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 20,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 4,243 shares during the quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $905,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on VZ shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, December 8th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.46.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.03. The company had a trading volume of 1,748,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,288,953. The company has a market capitalization of $176.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.44. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $42.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.85. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.14 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

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).