NFP Retirement Inc. Sells 917 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

NFP Retirement Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,009 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 917 shares during the quarter. NFP Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $409,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 81.0% in the 1st quarter. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. now owns 543 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 71.8% in the 1st quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 584 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 114.6% in the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on VZ shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Arete Research raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.35.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.1%

VZ stock opened at $43.72 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.89. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $47.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%. The firm had revenue of $34.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.47 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.17%.

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).