Global Assets Advisory LLC Grows Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3,671.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,405,303 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,368,037 shares during the quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $58,967,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,396,167,000 after acquiring an additional 930,367 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,882,164,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 92.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 22,599,173 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $851,989,000 after purchasing an additional 10,882,873 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 127.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 21,801,067 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $821,900,000 after buying an additional 12,220,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,602,847 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $362,027,000 after buying an additional 341,056 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on 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 Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price 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. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.93 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $41.17. 20,598,965 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,886,178. 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 market cap of $173.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.94.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.46%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).