Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Bought by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 13.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 124,666 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,851 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 62,101,021 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,117,471,000 after purchasing an additional 8,289,877 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 20.8% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 38,164,982 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,915,882,000 after buying an additional 6,580,820 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.1% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 41,173,226 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,743,274,000 after buying an additional 5,075,794 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth approximately $184,260,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth approximately $132,893,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $51.50 to $50.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Moffett Nathanson lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.80.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $43.18 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $47.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.65. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.68 and a 52 week high of $51.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.39 billion, a PE ratio of 11.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 26th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $34.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.77 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 11.64% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 5.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.7075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.6%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 73.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.48, for a total transaction of $48,928.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 99,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,446,487.68. This represents a 1.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,900 shares of company stock worth $469,073. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

More Verizon Communications News

Here are the key news stories impacting Verizon Communications this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Verizon reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share, above the $1.27 consensus estimate. EBITDA margins improved to 40.2%, while net income increased year over year. Verizon Beats Q3 Earnings Estimates on Strong Margins, Revenues Miss
• Positive Sentiment: Wireless customer trends were notably strong. Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers—its best third-quarter result in five years—and 137,000 postpaid accounts. Broadband additions totaled 314,000. Verizon Delivers Another Record-Breaking Quarter
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its 2026 outlook for adjusted EPS, postpaid phone additions and free cash flow for the third consecutive quarter. Verizon now expects adjusted EPS of approximately $5.04 to $5.06 and free-cash-flow growth approaching 12%. Verizon Raises 2026 Outlook After Strong Postpaid Subscriber Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Verizon signed a more than $2 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services to expand distributed computing and fiber infrastructure supporting AI workloads. The deal provides a new growth avenue beyond the mature wireless business. Verizon Lifts Outlook, Inks Amazon Deal Worth More Than $2 Billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Management said SpaceX’s proposed nationwide wireless service would require extensive land-based infrastructure and years of investment to become competitive, suggesting a longer-term rather than immediate threat. Verizon Says SpaceX Will Need Years and Major Investment
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue rose only 1.5% to $34.31 billion, missing analysts’ $34.77 billion estimate. The miss—along with reports of lower phone upgrades—overshadowed the earnings beat and raised concerns about limited top-line growth in Verizon’s mature market. Verizon Stock Falls on Revenue Miss Amid Lower Phone Upgrades
• Negative Sentiment: Investors also remain cautious about potential disruption from SpaceX’s planned mobile network, which could increase pricing pressure and customer-acquisition costs across the wireless industry.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

Verizon Communications Inc is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and digital connectivity services. Through its consumer business, Verizon offers mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and other connected devices, home internet, fixed wireless access, and fiber-optic broadband services under the Fios brand.

Verizon also serves businesses, government agencies, and other organizations with wireless connectivity, private networks, internet and data services, managed communications, cloud and security solutions, and Internet of Things services.