Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC Has $1.99 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,869 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 401 shares during the quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $530,576,000 after buying an additional 10,300,369 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 5,392,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $40.20 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.89. The stock has a market cap of $169.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.37, a PEG ratio of 2.96 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. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.02. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%.The firm had revenue of $33.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 64.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $50.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

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).