Centric Wealth Management Purchases New Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Centric Wealth Management purchased a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 5,754 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $44.38 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $186.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.66.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.11%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

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).