Steele Capital Management Inc. Takes $260,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Steele Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 6,900 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $260,000.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VZ. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays boosted 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 upgraded Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Six 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 stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.37 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $39.72. 3,110,746 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,949,506. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.85, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share 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 $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

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).