RWA Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 33,474 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

RWA Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 69.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 81,621 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after buying an additional 33,474 shares during the period. RWA Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,077,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on VZ. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.49. 15,942,031 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,223,914. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $40.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. Verizon Communications's quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.74%. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company's stock.

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).