Hilltop National Bank Has $924,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hilltop National Bank boosted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,095 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,543 shares during the period. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $924,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fermata Advisors LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 4.5% in the third quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,626 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $253,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,450 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 54,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,240,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 7,628 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wynn Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.4% in the third quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 5,945 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $37.80. The company had a trading volume of 9,581,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,295,252. The stock has a market cap of $159.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.56 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The business’s 50-day moving average is $41.36 and its 200-day moving average is $41.81. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend 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).