Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 10,932 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $481,000.
Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Leo Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,346,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,678,000 after purchasing an additional 37,732 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 22,894 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $961,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its position in Verizon Communications by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 2,262,463 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $85,295,000 after purchasing an additional 56,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meyer Handelman Co. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.4% in the first quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 919,618 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $38,587,000 after purchasing an additional 21,132 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
VZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.26.
Verizon Communications Stock Performance
VZ opened at $43.00 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.62 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $181.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.60.
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The company had revenue of $32.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.21 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Verizon Communications Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.63%.
Verizon Communications Company 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).
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