Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC Purchases 889 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,857 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 889 shares during the quarter. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $982,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 50.4% during the first quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2,159.1% during the first quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 994 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $43.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,361,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,361,889. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company’s 50-day moving average is $42.87 and its 200-day moving average is $41.28. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.26 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. Verizon Communications’s revenue 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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price objective on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.26.

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).