Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Increases Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,101 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,628 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $833,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares during the period. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,233.3% in the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 970 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.1 %

VZ opened at $40.10 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $168.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.96, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $40.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.67.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors 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 6.63%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications 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).