CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC Has $502,000 Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 15.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,171 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,526 shares during the period. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $502,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 501,787 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $22,535,000 after acquiring an additional 20,818 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 684,908 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $30,759,000 after purchasing an additional 59,387 shares in the last quarter. Investors Research Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 32,420 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 4,908 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. Bank of America upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $181.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.46 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The business’s fifty day moving average is $42.90 and its 200-day moving average is $41.53.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio 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).