Brookstone Capital Management Buys 13,242 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 386,661 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,242 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $15,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 762.6% during the third quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,061 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on VZ. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.21 on Monday, reaching $38.02. The stock had a trading volume of 5,785,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,660,393. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.80. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).