Santori & Peters Inc. Purchases New Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Santori & Peters Inc. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 6,331 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 173.7% during the 3rd quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $21,137,000 after acquiring an additional 413,869 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616 shares in the last quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,677,000 after buying an additional 3,020 shares during the period. GFS Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $212,000. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at $306,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective 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. Citigroup increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.41 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $40.09. 19,837,496 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,158,039. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50 day moving average of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.64%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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).