Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. Boosts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZFree Report) by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,619 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 607 shares during the period. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $117,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in Verizon Communications by 2.6% during the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 74,823 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866 shares during the period. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth $25,000. Burney Co. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 63,862 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,680,000 after buying an additional 3,008 shares during the period. FSA Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. FSA Advisors Inc. now owns 6,988 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invst LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $906,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VZ shares. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on VZ

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $44.40 on Thursday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.46 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.91 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.64.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.11%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

(Free Report)

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).

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ)

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