Acas LLC Takes $227,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Acas LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,019 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Naples Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.6% during the third quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 13,018 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $422,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the period. Ziegler Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.0% during the third quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 67,895 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,200,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241 shares during the period. Advocate Group LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.6% during the third quarter. Advocate Group LLC now owns 196,826 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,379,000 after purchasing an additional 17,196 shares during the period. Atlas Brown Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.9% during the third quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 30,439 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $987,000 after purchasing an additional 1,975 shares during the period. Finally, Piscataqua Savings Bank raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Piscataqua Savings Bank now owns 12,812 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Wolfe Research raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $39.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,414,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,019,613. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market cap of $164.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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).