Summit Trail Advisors LLC Grows Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,353 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 1,032 shares during the quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $4,013,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 50,376 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.3% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 25,699 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after purchasing an additional 6,273 shares during the last quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 116,950 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,252,000 after purchasing an additional 3,480 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 6,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lane & Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 36.0% in the third quarter. Lane & Associates LLC now owns 8,432 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 2,232 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VZ. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $181.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a fifty day moving average of $42.90 and a 200-day moving average of $41.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.29%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).