Portfolio Design Labs LLC Buys Shares of 37,655 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 37,655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,691,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 5.0% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 855,043 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,400,000 after acquiring an additional 40,501 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 0.9% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,307,008 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $58,698,000 after purchasing an additional 12,014 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank increased its position in Verizon Communications by 3.5% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 699,952 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,435,000 after buying an additional 23,730 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,790,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 47,999 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,156,000 after acquiring an additional 6,506 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $41.92 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.49. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.20 and a fifty-two 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 company has a market cap of $176.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.07, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.47%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).