Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 41,638 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,549,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VZ. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth $32,000. Kepos Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Steward Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 92.9% during the first quarter. Steward Financial Group LLC now owns 957 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Paladin Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 35.4% during the first quarter. Paladin Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. 61.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. HSBC reduced their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.50 to $39.00 in a research report on Monday, June 5th. Edward Jones cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $51.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Samantha Hammock sold 12,557 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.29, for a total value of $418,022.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $33.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $142.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.76, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.25 and a 52 week high of $42.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.01.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.04. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 6th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.87%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 52.20%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

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).