Cypress Wealth Services LLC Raises Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cypress Wealth Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 20,001 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,573 shares during the period. Cypress Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $2,015,000. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 41,924 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,729,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,212 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after purchasing an additional 2,997 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.9% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 942,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,888,000 after purchasing an additional 84,973 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 67.4% during the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 642,324 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $26,489,000 after buying an additional 258,683 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $38.32 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $161.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.52, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $41.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.73.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

Verizon Communications 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).