Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 181,824 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 18,741 shares during the quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $7,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,691,099 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $147,053,000 after purchasing an additional 378,948 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 8,748 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $350,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 45,043,310 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,801,282,000 after buying an additional 4,951,733 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,261,235 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $170,407,000 after acquiring an additional 74,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 167,609 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,703,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at $633,159.61. This represents a 40.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,500 shares of company stock worth $1,298,440. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 1.7 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.97. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week high of $47.36. The company has a market capitalization of $185.81 billion, a PE ratio of 10.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.26%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on VZ. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research cut Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

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).