Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 14,266 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $641,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,678,000 after acquiring an additional 37,732 shares in the last quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings 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 last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $92,445,000 after purchasing an additional 57,583 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 102,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,592,000 after buying an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meyer Handelman Co. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 973,547 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $40,149,000 after buying an additional 53,929 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $41.17 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.40 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $173.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $43.15 and a 200-day moving average of $41.37.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business 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 firm earned $1.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors 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 6.59%. 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 dividend payout ratio is 116.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. 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 research note on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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).