Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC Acquires 2,442 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 13.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 19,954 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 2,442 shares during the quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 655.5% during the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $810,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,851,664.50. The trade was a 30.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on VZ. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank boosted their price target 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. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.8 %

VZ opened at $40.14 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.70, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.75%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.46%.

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).