Boston Common Asset Management LLC Has $21.19 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 90.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 467,089 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after buying an additional 222,120 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $21,187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rempart Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 52.8% during the 1st quarter. Rempart Asset Management Inc. now owns 310,390 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $14,079,000 after buying an additional 107,200 shares during the last quarter. Penbrook Management LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 24.9% during the 1st quarter. Penbrook Management LLC now owns 34,871 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,582,000 after buying an additional 6,950 shares during the last quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC now owns 55,625 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $2,523,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 171,856 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $7,795,000 after buying an additional 11,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co of the South bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth $205,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 7,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.88, for a total transaction of $329,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 19,008 shares in the company, valued at $834,071.04. The trade was a 28.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last 90 days. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $43.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,959,703 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,147,661. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $43.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.18. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36. The company has a market cap of $182.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.26%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research cut shares of Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and set a $45.00 price objective (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $47.41.

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).