25,000 Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Purchased by One68 Global Capital LLC

One68 Global Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 25,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,000,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Parvin Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $629,000. Headland Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth about $373,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group grew its position in Verizon Communications by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 34,414 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,376,000 after buying an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management grew its position in Verizon Communications by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Triumph Capital Management now owns 14,772 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 48,751 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,950,000 after acquiring an additional 6,599 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VZ shares. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE:VZ opened at $42.94 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.59 and a twelve month high of $47.36. The company has a market cap of $184.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. Analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 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 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total transaction of $319,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,590 shares in the company, valued at $262,809.20. This represents a 54.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $633,159.61. The trade was a 40.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,000 shares of company stock valued at $969,340. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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).