Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Sold by Boston Trust Walden Corp

Boston Trust Walden Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 298,837 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 10,057 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $12,931,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 61.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,759,000 after purchasing an additional 16,704 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 14.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 68,641 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,114,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 23.6% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,641,090 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $74,440,000 after buying an additional 313,457 shares in the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.1% during the first quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 268,667 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,187,000 after buying an additional 17,696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the first quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 9,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 1,750 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Bank of America raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $50.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.63.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.1%

NYSE:VZ opened at $40.57 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.37. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%.The business had revenue of $34.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.636-4.728 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.34%.

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).