Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Acquires 332 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,524 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 332 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $810,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,851,664.50. This trade represents a 30.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of VZ opened at $40.48 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.56. The company has a market cap of $170.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 65.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

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).