High Falls Advisors Inc Acquires 1,245 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

High Falls Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 24.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,401 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. High Falls Advisors Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.37 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $178.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.83. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $36.46 and a one year high of $45.36. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

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

Verizon Communications Company 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).