Drive Wealth Management LLC Purchases 352 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Drive Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,490 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $459,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after acquiring an additional 565,842 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $815,636,000 after acquiring an additional 502,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,493,998 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $561,105,000 after acquiring an additional 46,100 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on VZ shares. Wolfe Research upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.43.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE VZ opened at $39.54 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.04, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 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.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.85%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).