Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. Increases Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,670 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,755 shares during the quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $1,829,675,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 255.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 48,058,216 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,893,493,000 after purchasing an additional 34,553,565 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 85,876,978 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,358,991,000 after purchasing an additional 12,189,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987,691 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on VZ shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 5th. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.50 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Finally, Edward Jones cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.40.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $33.54 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.94. The firm has a market cap of $140.98 billion, a PE ratio of 6.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.25 and a 12-month high of $42.58.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $32.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.30 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 15.58% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 6th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 52.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Samantha Hammock sold 12,557 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.29, for a total value of $418,022.53. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides 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).