Reston Wealth Management LLC Acquires Shares of 1,260 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,260 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $250,312,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Verizon Communications by 112.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $273,507,000 after buying an additional 3,481,936 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $536,791,000 after buying an additional 2,040,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $287,601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916,951 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $42.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $177.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $43.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.33. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.67 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.678 dividend. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.44%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. UBS Group raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Raymond James increased 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

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).