Telemus Capital LLC Purchases 924 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Telemus Capital LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,608 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 924 shares during the period. Telemus Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Thomasville National Bank raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.3% during the second quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 107,996 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,016,000 after acquiring an additional 5,458 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 26.6% during the second quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 7,893 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,658 shares in the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.5% during the second quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 268,861 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,999,000 after acquiring an additional 16,449 shares in the last quarter. Delta Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.1% during the second quarter. Delta Financial Group Inc. now owns 85,321 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,173,000 after acquiring an additional 4,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tsfg LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 8.3% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 6,613 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. 61.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $33.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $142.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.25 and a 1 year high of $42.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.95.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 yield of 7.87%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Samantha Hammock sold 12,557 shares of the company’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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Citigroup raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 29th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Verizon Communications from $51.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $44.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on 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. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.40.

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).