Howard Financial Services LTD. Has $246,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Howard Financial Services LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,148 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Verity & Verity LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 323,171 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $12,924,000 after purchasing an additional 36,710 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 290,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,634,000 after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 105,664 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,225,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Spring Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Spring Capital Management LLC now owns 83,241 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,329,000 after acquiring an additional 2,535 shares during the period. Finally, TrueWealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,590 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,463,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VZ. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of VZ opened at $38.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $41.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

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).