RMR Wealth Builders Raises Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

RMR Wealth Builders lifted its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 69,163 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,176 shares during the period. RMR Wealth Builders’ holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 75,252.9% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 12,810 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 12,793 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 65,679 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,709,000 after acquiring an additional 6,449 shares in the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.7% during the second quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 78,190 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,225,000 after buying an additional 19,258 shares during the last quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.0% during the second quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $188,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 7,030,151 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $289,923,000 after purchasing an additional 299,540 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial increased their target price 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. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 1.3 %

VZ traded down $0.48 on Friday, hitting $37.78. The company had a trading volume of 27,312,041 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,407,391. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.81. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.56 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a market cap of $159.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.28, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).