Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC Invests $206,000 in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 5,143 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 27.7% during the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 222,366 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $8,892,000 after buying an additional 48,294 shares during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $3,376,000. Burney Co. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 186,621 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $7,463,000 after buying an additional 43,472 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1,934.5% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $48,503,000 after buying an additional 1,026,930 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,333,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of VZ opened at $42.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.58. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $176.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.45%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.46%.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% 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).