Planned Solutions Inc. Purchases Shares of 7,277 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,277 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% in the fourth 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 purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after acquiring an additional 11,987,691 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 175,039,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,509,733,000 after buying an additional 8,171,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 339,007,286 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,607,681,000 after purchasing an additional 5,910,739 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.86.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $41.54 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $174.65 billion, a PE ratio of 15.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.31. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.21.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 96.38%.

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).