Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Free Report) by 90.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 70,365 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 33,368 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.9% in the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 39,504 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,536,000 after buying an additional 732 shares during the period. Northeast Investment Management raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Northeast Investment Management now owns 33,103 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 2,230 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. abrdn plc now owns 5,004,606 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $194,629,000 after purchasing an additional 380,241 shares during the period. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $717,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elk River Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.3% during the first quarter. Elk River Wealth Management LLC now owns 74,638 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,903,000 after buying an additional 6,964 shares during the period. 61.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
VZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $39.00 to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 20th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.50 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, June 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.40.
Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6 %
Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $34.39. The company had a trading volume of 5,114,243 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,673,354. The company has a market cap of $144.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.25 and a 12 month high of $42.85. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.21.
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 15.58%. The business had revenue of $32.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Samantha Hammock sold 12,557 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.29, for a total value of $418,022.53. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
About Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides 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).
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