Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. Grows Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3,233.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $38,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after purchasing an additional 4,134,150 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $133,491,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 3,782.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,974,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $149,850,000 after acquiring an additional 3,872,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 5,302,051 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $171,839,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703,197 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $1.09 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $39.69. The company had a trading volume of 25,970,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,270,385. The company’s fifty day moving average is $40.52 and its 200 day moving average is $38.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.85 billion, a PE ratio of 14.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.41.

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 net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

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).