Breakwater Capital Group Acquires 6,168 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Breakwater Capital Group increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 71.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,837 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after buying an additional 6,168 shares during the period. Breakwater Capital Group's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 382,678 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $15,303,000 after purchasing an additional 6,795 shares in the last quarter. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $381,000. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $4,333,000. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 64.6% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,394,921 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $55,783,000 after acquiring an additional 547,384 shares during the period. Finally, Axis Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at $1,200,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on VZ shares. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI upgraded 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 report on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.26 on Friday. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $43.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.27. 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 market capitalization of $182.41 billion, a PE ratio of 10.45, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.59 and a 12 month high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The company had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $212,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,508 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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).

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