Metis Global Partners LLC Has $7.87 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 14.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 208,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 26,173 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $7,865,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. TCG Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. TCG Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,983 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $716,000 after purchasing an additional 2,880 shares during the last quarter. Claris Advisors LLC MO purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $221,000. AJOVista LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $178,000. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 369,936 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $13,947,000 after buying an additional 8,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 24.3% in the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 8,626 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 1,687 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Raymond James increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $38.89. The stock had a trading volume of 13,195,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,003,748. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year 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. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.84%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

About Verizon Communications

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).