Acas LLC Takes $227,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Acas LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 6,019 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Pacifica Partners Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 5,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $374,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 10,961 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $413,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Western Financial Corp CA increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 16,564 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $624,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.38 on Thursday, hitting $39.11. The stock had a trading volume of 4,414,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,019,613. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market cap of $164.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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).