Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 53,403 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $403,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in VIV. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Telefônica Brasil by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 15,192,635 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $114,704,000 after buying an additional 1,053,218 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Telefônica Brasil during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,619,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Telefônica Brasil by 41.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 264,413 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,716,000 after purchasing an additional 77,005 shares during the last quarter. Commons Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil in the fourth quarter worth $551,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Telefônica Brasil by 27.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 326,954 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $3,413,000 after purchasing an additional 70,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.16% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VIV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Telefônica Brasil from $10.60 to $9.20 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Telefônica Brasil from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Telefônica Brasil from $10.40 to $9.20 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Telefônica Brasil from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $11.80 to $11.50 in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.97.

Telefônica Brasil Trading Down 1.1 %

VIV opened at $8.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Telefônica Brasil S.A. has a twelve month low of $7.47 and a twelve month high of $10.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.78.

Telefônica Brasil (NYSE:VIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.01. Telefônica Brasil had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Analysts predict that Telefônica Brasil S.A. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Telefônica Brasil Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a $0.0215 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. This is a positive change from Telefônica Brasil’s previous dividend of $0.02. Telefônica Brasil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.90%.

Telefônica Brasil Profile

Telefônica Brasil SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mobile telecommunications company in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, 4.5G, and 5G, as well as mobile value-added and wireless roaming services.