Crewe Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 7,502 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,502 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $315,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Leelyn Smith LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 63,212 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,652,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811 shares during the last quarter. Natixis lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 720,017 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $30,212,000 after buying an additional 213,510 shares during the last quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 20,709 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $869,000 after buying an additional 2,345 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 84,982 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,566,000 after buying an additional 14,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 22.5% in the 1st quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 7,670 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $322,000 after buying an additional 1,410 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VZ. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.68.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Thursday, hitting $39.96. 19,739,276 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,961,102. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The business had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.66%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).