Tudor Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 13,610 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Tudor Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,610 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock, valued at approximately $611,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Chelsea Counsel Co. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 31,420 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,411,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 9,846 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.3% in the third 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 during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 7,133 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $320,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the period. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.9% in the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 12,244 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $550,000 after buying an additional 1,680 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on VZ shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial upped their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.46.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $42.08. 11,149,384 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,358,783. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.46 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.85. The company has a market capitalization of $177.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.10, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44. 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 (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, 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 business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).