Genus Capital Management Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Genus Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 92,720 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock, valued at approximately $4,206,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Burford Brothers Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 0.9% in the first quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. now owns 47,683 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $2,163,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,452,774 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $65,898,000 after buying an additional 10,099 shares during the last quarter. DMC Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 16,292 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $739,000 after buying an additional 1,760 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $592,000. Finally, Telos Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 67.0% during the 1st quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,050 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $773,000 after buying an additional 6,841 shares during 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 several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded 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. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $45.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.00.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $41.63. 20,156,157 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,209,684. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $43.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.52 billion, a PE ratio of 9.91, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.59 and a 1-year high of $47.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 13.14%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.51%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total transaction of $396,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 10,008 shares in the company, valued at $441,352.80. The trade was a 47.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400. 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).