Capital Investment Advisors LLC Buys 20,435 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 3.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 652,649 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after purchasing an additional 20,435 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $29,604,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 382,678 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $15,303,000 after acquiring an additional 6,795 shares during the period. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $381,000. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $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 worth $55,783,000 after purchasing an additional 547,384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meyer Handelman Co. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.4% during the first quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 1,110,948 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $50,393,000 after purchasing an additional 76,083 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.52 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $43.82. 10,130,617 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,069,001. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $43.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.28. The company has a market cap of $184.76 billion, a PE ratio of 10.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $33.31 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.18%. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is 64.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,550,859.84. This trade represents a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

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).