Harbor Investment Advisory LLC Acquires 969 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,894 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 969 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $961,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management now owns 9,353 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $353,000 after buying an additional 2,314 shares in the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,346,000. WealthTrust Axiom LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 118,806 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,479,000 after purchasing an additional 2,422 shares in the last quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 173.7% in the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $21,137,000 after purchasing an additional 413,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,131,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $41.15 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $39.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.35, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.42.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.46%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

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).