BBR Partners LLC Sells 283 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

BBR Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,008 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 283 shares during the period. BBR Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in 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 buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after buying an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,466,446,000 after buying an additional 535,322 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after buying an additional 565,842 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $815,636,000 after buying an additional 502,949 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on VZ shares. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $44.40 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $186.91 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. The company’s fifty day moving average is $42.90 and its 200 day moving average is $41.64. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.46 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. 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 company earned $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.11%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).