Benjamin Edwards Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 1,934.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after acquiring an additional 1,026,930 shares during the period. Verizon Communications makes up approximately 0.7% of Benjamin Edwards Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Benjamin Edwards Inc.'s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $48,503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 19.6% during the second quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,877 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,455 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 70.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 32,760 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,375,000 after buying an additional 13,527 shares during the period. Sage Capital Advisors llc lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the second quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 130,575 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $5,385,000 after acquiring an additional 1,884 shares during the last quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth approximately $206,000. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 30.1% during the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 70,127 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $2,892,000 after acquiring an additional 16,222 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. UBS Group upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James increased their target price 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. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of VZ traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $43.85. The company had a trading volume of 12,517,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,448,660. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $42.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.70. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.46 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. The firm's revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.18%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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).