Lakeside Advisors INC. Grows Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lakeside Advisors INC. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 14.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,485 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 676 shares during the quarter. Lakeside Advisors INC.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.0% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $78,975,000 after purchasing an additional 644,761 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth about $224,000. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,174,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $232,389,000 after purchasing an additional 39,403 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 26.0% during the third quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 8,368 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 1,725 shares during the last quarter. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 143,487 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,444,000 after acquiring an additional 8,932 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at $596,439.20. This trade represents a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.49 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.59. The stock has a market cap of $178.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.46%.

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).