Accel Wealth Management Has $428,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Accel Wealth Management boosted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,197 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 485 shares during the period. Accel Wealth Management’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Vima LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. 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 research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.14.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $41.12 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $40.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.13. The company has a market cap of $173.08 billion, a PE ratio of 15.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.47%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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).