Second Half Financial Partners LLC Has $213,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Second Half Financial Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,689 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 348 shares during the quarter. Second Half Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $381,000. Meyer Handelman Co. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.4% in the first quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 1,110,948 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $50,393,000 after buying an additional 76,083 shares in the last quarter. Rempart Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 52.8% in the first quarter. Rempart Asset Management Inc. now owns 310,390 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $14,079,000 after buying an additional 107,200 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 2,075,431 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $82,996,000 after buying an additional 20,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Welch Group LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.9% in the first quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 1,137,904 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $51,126,000 after buying an additional 63,474 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total value of $396,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 10,008 shares in the company, valued at $441,352.80. The trade was a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.35.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $43.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $181.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 19.61%. The firm had revenue of $34.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.29%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 63.17%.

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).