Mariner LLC Has $50.04 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mariner LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 27.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,251,282 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after acquiring an additional 266,525 shares during the period. Mariner LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $50,038,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.9% during the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 12,244 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,680 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 7,133 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $320,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,327 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 819 shares in the last quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd grew its position in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 758,019 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $33,850,000 after acquiring an additional 9,846 shares during the period. Finally, Chelsea Counsel Co. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the third quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 31,420 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,411,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $46.92.

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Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total transaction of $437,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at $633,159.61. The trade was a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 49,085 shares of company stock worth $2,020,895. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $44.32 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.57 billion, a PE ratio of 10.71, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.59 and a 52 week high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 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 last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is 65.46%.

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).

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