Flywheel Private Wealth LLC Acquires Shares of 7,523 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Flywheel Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,523 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted 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 acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 762.6% during the third quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,061 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on VZ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $38.32. The stock had a trading volume of 24,643,354 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,450,572. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.73.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business 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 was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.07%. 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).