SFG Wealth Management LLC. Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

SFG Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,170 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. SFG Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third 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. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.5 %

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $40.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,317,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,526,330. 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 $171.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.48, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.43. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.40 and a 52-week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.65%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Raymond James lifted 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. Bank of America increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Tigress Financial increased their target price 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. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

About Verizon Communications

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).