Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Purchased by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 237,350 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,400 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $10,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.6% in the first quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 283,854 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,876,000 after acquiring an additional 12,605 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 23.6% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,641,090 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $74,440,000 after acquiring an additional 313,457 shares during the last quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 10.1% during the first quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC now owns 6,574 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $298,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the first quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 81,705 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,706,000 after acquiring an additional 3,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 81.0% during the first 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 last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.96 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.59 and a 1 year high of $47.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.29. The company has a market cap of $181.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total transaction of $396,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,008 shares in the company, valued at $441,352.80. The trade was a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last ninety days. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Nine research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.41.

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).