Montecito Bank & Trust Grows Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Montecito Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,831 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,276 shares during the quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,564,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $354,000. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $200,000. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 21,700 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $911,000 after buying an additional 552 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 39.7% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 12,787 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $537,000 after acquiring an additional 3,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CFO4Life Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 9,455 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target 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. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

VZ stock opened at $41.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $173.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.75, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.40 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $43.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.59%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).