Simmons Bank Sells 3,600 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Simmons Bank cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 145,672 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,600 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,303,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 303.9% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after buying an additional 37,516,167 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 737.5% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $530,576,000 after buying an additional 10,300,369 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 301.2% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $385,750,000 after buying an additional 6,385,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 20.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,434,572,000 after buying an additional 5,392,416 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Arete Research raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.5%

NYSE VZ opened at $39.29 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $42.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.75. The company has a market capitalization of $165.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.39, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $33.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.97%.

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).