LaFleur & Godfrey LLC Has $1.78 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

LaFleur & Godfrey LLC lowered its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,560 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,333 shares during the quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, IFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 244.1% during the fourth quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 1,115 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on VZ. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $38.86 on Monday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.69.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.97%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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).