Kingfisher Capital LLC Has $302,000 Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 27th, 2023

Verizon Communications logo Kingfisher Capital LLC cut its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Get Rating) by 16.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,676 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,525 shares during the period. Kingfisher Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $302,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 211.6% in the second quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 11,515,955 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $584,800,000 after acquiring an additional 7,820,187 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $181,862,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 81.3% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,604,493 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $540,193,000 after buying an additional 4,756,222 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 37.4% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,217,516 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $721,539,000 after buying an additional 3,870,751 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 349,590,768 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $13,273,960,000 after acquiring an additional 3,857,646 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 26th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Verizon Communications from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.11.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $37.66 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $158.17 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.36. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.81. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.55 and a 1 year high of $55.51.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 15.53% and a return on equity of 24.60%. The business had revenue of $35.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.68 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 6th. This represents a $2.61 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.93%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 6,226 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.69, for a total transaction of $228,431.94. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 67,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,493,672.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Verizon Communications

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Verizon Communications, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of communications, information, and entertainment products and services. It operates through the Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business) segments. The Consumer segment provides consumer-focused wireless and wire line communications services and products.