Hilltop Holdings Inc. Acquires 51,255 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 48.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 156,782 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 51,255 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $7,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 4,585,971 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $205,956,000 after acquiring an additional 118,901 shares during the period. Coastwise Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Coastwise Capital Group LLC now owns 45,269 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,149 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the third quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 209,520 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,407,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Concentric Capital Strategies LP lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 20.7% during the third quarter. Concentric Capital Strategies LP now owns 261,001 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,722,000 after purchasing an additional 44,703 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 152,853 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,865,000 after purchasing an additional 21,289 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. UBS Group boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $44.30 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.70. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a market cap of $186.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.12%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).