Bouchey Financial Group Ltd Boosts Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bouchey Financial Group Ltd increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 17.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 2,098 shares during the period. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $538,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,678,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987,691 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 175,039,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,509,733,000 after purchasing an additional 8,171,700 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 339,007,286 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,607,681,000 after acquiring an additional 5,910,739 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. Barclays upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.57 on Wednesday, reaching $41.42. The stock had a trading volume of 10,663,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,208,373. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $40.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.42%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

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).