Old North State Wealth Management LLC Buys 4,550 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Old North State Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,978 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 4,550 shares during the period. Old North State Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,678,000 after purchasing an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.7% during the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,095,000 after purchasing an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 102,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,592,000 after purchasing an additional 2,953 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.9% during the second quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 973,547 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $40,149,000 after purchasing an additional 53,929 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 164.4% during the third quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 94,339 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,237,000 after purchasing an additional 58,657 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $174.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.43. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.31 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on VZ. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut 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 note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Scotiabank raised their price objective 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. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective 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. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

About Verizon Communications

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).