Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Purchases 22,857 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 772,873 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,857 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $30,907,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Profund Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.6% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 48,264 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,990,000 after buying an additional 3,412 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 679,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $28,020,000 after purchasing an additional 56,534 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,077 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,517 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,334,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 74.5% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 162,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,698,000 after purchasing an additional 69,328 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $38.86 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $41.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.70. The stock has a market cap of $163.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

Verizon Communications 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).