Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Acquires 890 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,747 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 890 shares during the period. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,046,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 19.8% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 18,648 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 3,079 shares in the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 10,862 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $352,000 after purchasing an additional 1,912 shares in the last quarter. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $218,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.0% in the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,053 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 747 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 504,515 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $15,933,000 after purchasing an additional 6,058 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ traded up $0.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $40.53. The company had a trading volume of 5,278,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,969,029. The firm has a market cap of $170.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a fifty day moving average of $40.46 and a 200-day moving average of $38.61. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Verizon Communications

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).