Capital Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 20,435 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 652,649 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,435 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $29,604,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 114.6% during the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares during the period. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $184.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.44 and its 200-day moving average is $42.28. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.31 billion. Equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.18%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

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).