Richardson Financial Services Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 6,753 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 7,268 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,586 shares during the last quarter. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.9% during the third quarter. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. now owns 30,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $974,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 335,280 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $10,866,000 after buying an additional 35,774 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $15,085,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $300,175,000 after acquiring an additional 1,385,957 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $39.67. The company had a trading volume of 10,480,588 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,693,011. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The stock has a market cap of $166.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.80, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.89.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

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).