Quad Cities Investment Group LLC Grows Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Quad Cities Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZFree Report) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,776 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 2,288 shares during the period. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Ignite Planners LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 35,211 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,418,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Breakwater Capital Group lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 8,669 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 2,656 shares in the last quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 17,344.4% during the fourth quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 1,570 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,561 shares in the last quarter. Graves Light Lenhart Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Graves Light Lenhart Wealth Inc. now owns 23,977 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $959,000 after buying an additional 992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Investment Group LTD. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 160,819 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,431,000 after buying an additional 3,230 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.54.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $38.09 on Tuesday. 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 $160.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $41.23 and a 200 day moving average of $41.78. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

(Free Report)

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).

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ)

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