Certified Advisory Corp Buys 9,880 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Certified Advisory Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 53.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 28,484 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,880 shares during the quarter. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,678,000 after purchasing an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after acquiring an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $92,445,000 after acquiring an additional 57,583 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $222,500,000 after purchasing an additional 129,171 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.53. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).