Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Raises Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 30,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 873 shares during the period. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,168,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. CGC Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $32,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.4% in the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.86.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4 %

VZ stock traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $42.14. 11,265,721 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,198,563. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.31. The company has a market capitalization of $177.17 billion, a PE ratio of 15.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).