Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,937 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 35.1% during the third quarter. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. now owns 28,587 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,180,000 after buying an additional 7,428 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.7% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,974,352 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $88,668,000 after acquiring an additional 296,583 shares in the last quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 16,023 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $720,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Miramar Capital LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 24.7% during the third quarter. Miramar Capital LLC now owns 445,625 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $20,013,000 after purchasing an additional 88,395 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coastline Trust Co grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.7% in the third quarter. Coastline Trust Co now owns 9,797 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $440,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $41.65. 21,482,452 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,596,234. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.93 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.42. The company has a market cap of $175.33 billion, a PE ratio of 17.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 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).