Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC Invests $1.41 Million in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 37,194 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,412,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.8% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 339,007,286 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $12,607,681,000 after acquiring an additional 5,910,739 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 175,039,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,509,733,000 after acquiring an additional 8,171,700 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. 61.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of VZ traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $40.37. The company had a trading volume of 17,816,449 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,625,604. The company has a market capitalization of $169.73 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.21. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.17.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.59%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 96.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VZ. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.86.

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).