Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Purchases Shares of 62,134 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 62,134 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $2,790,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of VZ. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 1.4% during the second quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,760 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,626 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Austin Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,450 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 54,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,240,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 7,628 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $42.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.53. The stock has a market cap of $181.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. 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) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 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).