Alexander Labrunerie & CO. Inc. Buys New Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Alexander Labrunerie & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 4,570 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at $33,000. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 50.4% during the 1st quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 762.6% during the 3rd quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,061 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 938 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.31.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $41.51 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $174.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.28. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.26 and a twelve month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The firm had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 20.10%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.21 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.53%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 101.12%.

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).