Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 22.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,030 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 2,228 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.9% in the 4th quarter. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management now owns 9,353 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $353,000 after purchasing an additional 2,314 shares in the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,346,000. WealthTrust Axiom LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the 4th 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. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the 4th 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. Finally, GFS Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $212,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective 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. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective 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. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.24 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.42. 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 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42.

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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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).