Lakeside Advisors INC. Makes New Investment in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lakeside Advisors INC. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,809 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth $354,000. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,017 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,402 shares during the period. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the first quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC now owns 11,115 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.8% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 105,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,424,000 after buying an additional 11,974 shares during the period. Finally, Tobam grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.5% during the first quarter. Tobam now owns 545,873 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $22,905,000 after buying an additional 7,920 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 1.8 %

VZ stock opened at $41.36 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.31 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.11 billion, a PE ratio of 17.83, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).