Sivia Capital Partners LLC Buys 699 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,381 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 699 shares during the quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $375,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,581,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,466,446,000 after purchasing an additional 535,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after purchasing an additional 565,842 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $38.03. The company had a trading volume of 13,270,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,769,502. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.80. The company has a market capitalization of $160.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 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).