B&L Asset Management LLC Purchases New Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

B&L Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 5,429 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the 3rd 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, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

VZ opened at $44.34 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $186.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36.

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, topping 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 firm 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 earned $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).