Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Bought by Keyes Stange & Wooten Wealth Management LLC

Keyes Stange & Wooten Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,716 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,032 shares during the quarter. Keyes Stange & Wooten Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $751,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VZ. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter worth $250,312,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in Verizon Communications by 112.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $273,507,000 after acquiring an additional 3,481,936 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $536,791,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040,247 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Raymond James raised 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. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $181.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $42.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.53.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid 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 dividend yield of 6.29%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).