St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Has $517,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,322 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 724 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 50.7% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 41,876 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,357,000 after buying an additional 14,090 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.4% during the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 43,934 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,424,000 after buying an additional 2,629 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 46.2% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 597,822 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $19,375,000 after acquiring an additional 189,041 shares during the last quarter. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the third quarter. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 64,328 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,786 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.5% in the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 152,128 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,952,000 after acquiring an additional 26,931 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.1 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.02 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.98. The firm has a market cap of $172.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.31, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 6.48%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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).