Perigon Wealth Management LLC Purchases 6,744 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 166,360 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 6,744 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $177,799,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 184.3% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,428,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $217,087,000 after buying an additional 3,519,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after buying an additional 2,656,396 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.64 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $171.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.52, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.67%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on VZ. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.44.

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).