Cape Investment Advisory Inc. Has $593,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,725 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 1,580 shares during the quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $593,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,233.3% during the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.36.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $39.74. The stock had a trading volume of 10,419,992 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,358,114. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.47. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $167.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

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).