First Bancorp Inc ME Acquires 361 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

First Bancorp Inc ME grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,979 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $754,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.06 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $41.02. The company had a trading volume of 17,289,988 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,822,449. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.98. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.48%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.77.

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).