River Street Advisors LLC Has $758,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

River Street Advisors LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.0% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,877 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 962 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.6% in the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,937 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 35.1% in the third quarter. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. now owns 28,587 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,180,000 after acquiring an additional 7,428 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.7% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,974,352 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $88,668,000 after acquiring an additional 296,583 shares during the period. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the third quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 16,023 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $720,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the period. Finally, Miramar Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 24.7% in the third quarter. Miramar Capital LLC now owns 445,625 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $20,013,000 after acquiring an additional 88,395 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $41.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 21,482,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,596,234. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.93 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $175.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.51%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus 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).