Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Acquires 276,891 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 26.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,327,633 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after purchasing an additional 276,891 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $53,092,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $2,300,846,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $1,083,337,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% in the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $357,398,000 after purchasing an additional 8,695,736 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 108,694,230 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $4,346,682,000 after purchasing an additional 7,421,148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 52.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 19,828,378 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $792,937,000 after purchasing an additional 6,846,514 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 7,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.88, for a total transaction of $329,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 19,008 shares of the company's stock, valued at $834,071.04. This represents a 28.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.30. 9,959,703 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,147,661. The company has a market cap of $182.56 billion, a PE ratio of 10.46, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. 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 $43.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.18. 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 (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. On average, equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wolfe Research downgraded Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. DZ Bank upgraded Verizon Communications from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. 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 report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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).