St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Increases Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,720 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $549,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 120,574 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,972,000 after acquiring an additional 7,809 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,369,000. Point72 Europe London LLP purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,054,000. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,406,000. Finally, Delta Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC now owns 5,406 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $39.17 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.64. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.89 billion, a PE ratio of 16.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.92%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).