Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. Acquires Shares of 8,391 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,391 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,152,461 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $36,856,000 after purchasing an additional 153,485 shares in the last quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 43,139 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,398,000 after acquiring an additional 1,641 shares during the last quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $521,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.6% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,827,584 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $59,234,000 after purchasing an additional 246,475 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications 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 transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target 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. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $39.31. The stock had a trading volume of 10,759,940 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,841,270. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $40.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.01. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market cap of $165.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.77%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio 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).