Northern Financial Advisors Inc Makes New Investment in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Northern Financial Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 9,918 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $374,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.6 %

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.25 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.56. 4,782,194 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,677,600. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.72%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).