Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Acquired by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 82.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 52,801 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,843 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $1,829,675,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 255.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 48,058,216 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,893,493,000 after buying an additional 34,553,565 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 85,876,978 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,358,991,000 after buying an additional 12,189,613 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,678,273,000 after buying an additional 11,987,691 shares during the last quarter. 61.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, EVP Samantha Hammock sold 12,557 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.29, for a total transaction of $418,022.53. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on VZ. Raymond James lowered their target price on Verizon Communications from $51.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Edward Jones cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 17th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.50 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, June 5th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.40.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $33.86 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.04. The firm has a market cap of $142.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.25 and a fifty-two week high of $42.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $32.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.30 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 15.58% and a return on equity of 22.28%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.31 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.86%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 53.20%.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides 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).