Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC Takes Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 4,794 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kestra Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 121.8% during the first quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 176,531 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $8,007,000 after buying an additional 96,931 shares during the period. Cadinha & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2,916.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 347,716 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $15,046,000 after acquiring an additional 336,190 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 7,297,469 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $309,551,000 after purchasing an additional 722,559 shares during the period. Element Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,799,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 23.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 205,416 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $8,888,000 after purchasing an additional 39,445 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.98 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $41.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $172.80 billion, a PE ratio of 8.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.Verizon Communications’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.7%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.97%.

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).