Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,137 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 758 shares during the period. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 50.4% during the 1st quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.96 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.09, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.62 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The business had revenue of $32.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The business’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.21 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.31%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 99.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.26.

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).