Flossbach Von Storch SE Purchases 59,487 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Flossbach Von Storch SE lifted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 23.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 310,705 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 59,487 shares during the period. Flossbach Von Storch SE’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $12,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in 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. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on VZ. Tigress Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. DZ Bank raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.04 on Thursday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.58. The company has a market capitalization of $176.95 billion, a PE ratio of 10.15, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.46%.

Verizon Communications 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).