Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Grows Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,369 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 4,506 shares during the quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after purchasing an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $1,882,164,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 92.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 22,599,173 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $851,989,000 after purchasing an additional 10,882,873 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 127.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 21,801,067 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $821,900,000 after purchasing an additional 12,220,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,602,847 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $362,027,000 after purchasing an additional 341,056 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price 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. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.83 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $171.86 billion, a PE ratio of 15.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $40.04 and a 200-day moving average of $39.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.51%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

About Verizon Communications

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).