Kahn Brothers Group Inc. Purchases 630 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Kahn Brothers Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,476 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the quarter. Kahn Brothers Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $2,300,846,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,083,337,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $357,398,000 after acquiring an additional 8,695,736 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 108,694,230 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,346,682,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421,148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 52.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 19,828,378 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $792,937,000 after purchasing an additional 6,846,514 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,300. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $43.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $184.04 billion, a PE ratio of 10.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.59 and a 52-week high of $47.36. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.98.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.21%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

About Verizon Communications

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).