First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Has $4.07 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 26.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 107,875 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,580 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $4,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,151,714,000 after buying an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 17.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $133,491,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 3,782.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,974,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $149,850,000 after buying an additional 3,872,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 104.0% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 5,302,051 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $171,839,000 after buying an additional 2,703,197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.30 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.19. 17,754,069 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,130,207. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.43 and its 200 day moving average is $38.74. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.41. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.79%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. 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 note on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

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).