Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC Raises Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 23,702 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 299 shares during the quarter. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,081,241 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after buying an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,466,446,000 after buying an additional 535,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after buying an additional 565,842 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $36.46 and a one year high of $45.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $42.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

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).