Sendero Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 5,226 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sendero Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,226 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.9% during the 4th quarter. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management now owns 9,353 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 2,314 shares during the period. Leo Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,346,000. WealthTrust Axiom LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 118,806 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,479,000 after buying an additional 2,422 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the period. Finally, GFS Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $212,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on VZ. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.44 on Friday, reaching $41.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 27,637,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,928,629. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.02. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $173.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS 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 business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. 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).