Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Invests $449,000 in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 11,220 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock, valued at approximately $449,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated 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. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wolfe Research cut Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ stock traded up $0.18 on Tuesday, reaching $43.50. The company had a trading volume of 12,862,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,187,579. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.59 and a 1 year high of $47.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The company's fifty day moving average is $43.59 and its 200 day moving average is $42.15. The company has a market cap of $183.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.51, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.23%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the company's 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at $1,550,859.84. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400 in the last quarter. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company 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).