Rakuten Securities Inc. Invests $768,000 in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 20,364 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $768,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC now owns 20,593 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 2,155 shares during the period. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC now owns 122,525 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,619,000 after acquiring an additional 25,382 shares in the last quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $835,000. Financial Strategies Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 120,235 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,963,000 after acquiring an additional 14,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 2,170,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $81,830,000 after acquiring an additional 14,954 shares in the last quarter. 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 business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $39.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 14,016,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,262,630. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

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).