Santori & Peters Inc. Sells 302 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Santori & Peters Inc. lessened its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,029 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 302 shares during the quarter. Santori & Peters Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacifica Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 5,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC now owns 27,457 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the period. Selective Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $374,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.4% during the first quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,715 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.14.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $41.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,653,911 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,843,182. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $173.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.41. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $40.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.11.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.47%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

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).