Boltwood Capital Management Has $258,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Boltwood Capital Management lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 402 shares during the quarter. Boltwood Capital Management’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $258,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial upped 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $40.08 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $168.71 billion, a PE ratio of 14.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.91.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).