Lane & Associates LLC Has $379,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lane & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 8,432 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,232 shares during the quarter. Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.55. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.46 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.29%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

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).