Life Planning Partners Inc Purchases Shares of 65,541 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 65,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $2,621,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $78,975,000 after acquiring an additional 644,761 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at about $224,000. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 861,988 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,712,000 after purchasing an additional 23,696 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in Verizon Communications by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,174,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $232,389,000 after purchasing an additional 39,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 67.3% in the 3rd quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,490 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total transaction of $319,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,590 shares in the company, valued at $262,809.20. The trade was a 54.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $41.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.92, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.56. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.60%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank raised 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, January 27th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

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).