Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 17,182 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $648,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Certified Advisory Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Certified Advisory Corp now owns 23,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,187,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 5,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $374,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $407,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several research reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.86.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.7 %

NYSE VZ traded up $0.69 on Wednesday, reaching $41.54. The company had a trading volume of 19,204,788 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,358,660. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.65 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.52 and a 200-day moving average of $37.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The firm had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

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).