First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Raises Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 26.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 107,875 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after purchasing an additional 22,580 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.'s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $4,067,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $3,151,714,000 after buying an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,446,194,000 after buying an additional 2,015,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $300,175,000 after buying an additional 1,385,957 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on VZ shares. KeyCorp increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Verizon Communications from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.19. 17,754,069 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,130,207. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $164.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.41. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $40.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.79%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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).

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