Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Acquires 111,106 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,035,553 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 111,106 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $81,849,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.0% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $78,975,000 after purchasing an additional 644,761 shares during the period. Alpha Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $224,000. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 861,988 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $38,712,000 after buying an additional 23,696 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,174,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $232,389,000 after buying an additional 39,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. now owns 5,913 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 560 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DZ Bank upgraded 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. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Argus raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $40.52 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $170.57 billion, a PE ratio of 9.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $40.03 and its 200-day moving average is $41.56.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 65.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total transaction of $319,040.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,809.20. This represents a 54.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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).