Lakeside Advisors INC. Purchases New Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lakeside Advisors INC. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 4,809 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pittenger & Anderson Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 50.4% in the 1st quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $41.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $35.31 and a one year high of $45.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $174.11 billion, a PE ratio of 17.83, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.56%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).