Prossimo Advisors LLC Has $564,000 Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Prossimo Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,948 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 551 shares during the period. Verizon Communications makes up 1.2% of Prossimo Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Prossimo Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $564,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.1 %

VZ stock traded up $0.45 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $40.24. The company had a trading volume of 7,576,202 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,530,578. The company has a market capitalization of $169.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.02. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.61%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VZ. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications 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).