Whalen Wealth Management Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Whalen Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 12,422 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $497,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after purchasing an additional 4,711,309 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $177,799,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 184.3% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,428,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $217,087,000 after buying an additional 3,519,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 77.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656,396 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VZ. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $38.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.79, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.64. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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).