Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. Has $401,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,729 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 774 shares during the period. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 39.2% in the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. now owns 23,464 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,604 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Group LTD increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 8.7% in the second quarter. Main Street Group LTD now owns 9,348 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 748 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 30.2% during the second quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 983,054 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $40,541,000 after purchasing an additional 228,116 shares during the period. Patron Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 15,059 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $621,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the period. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $342,000 after buying an additional 1,021 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price objective for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.66.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $41.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 18,100,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,511,424. The firm has a market cap of $173.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $40.93 and a 200-day moving average of $40.53.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The company had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.21 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

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).