Frazier Financial Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,269 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $48,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,882,164,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after purchasing an additional 4,134,150 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.36.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $39.53. The company had a trading volume of 3,364,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,111,070. The stock has a market cap of $166.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.25%.

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).