Quotient Wealth Partners LLC Has $1.31 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 42.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 32,853 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 9,834 shares during the quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 655.5% in the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ stock opened at $39.88 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.53. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $167.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.63, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.80%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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).