Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC Sells 3,111 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 36,492 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,111 shares during the quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,466,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 22,894 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $961,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the period. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2,159.1% in the first quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 994 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares in the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,671.0% in the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 1,405,303 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $58,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,368,037 shares in the last quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.9% in the first quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC now owns 26,829 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,126,000 after purchasing an additional 2,629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Range Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 13.4% in the first quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 53,639 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,251,000 after purchasing an additional 6,336 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VZ. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $173.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.96.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.46%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

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).