Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Purchases 166,137 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 56.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 459,777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 166,137 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $20,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,678,000 after purchasing an additional 37,732 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 19.6% during the second quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 14,730 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $607,000 after buying an additional 2,412 shares in the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,383 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Unison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Unison Advisors LLC now owns 61,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,528,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Austin Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,207 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,035 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of 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, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE VZ opened at $42.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $36.46 and a one year high of $45.36.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications 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).