Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Stake Lifted by Code Waechter LLC

Code Waechter LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 42.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,589 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,543 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 368,171,941 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $16,700,279,000 after buying an additional 4,347,416 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 109,866,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,983,225,000 after buying an additional 1,172,175 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 37,516,167 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 45,475,099 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,062,750,000 after purchasing an additional 431,789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.0% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 41,993,829 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,904,840,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,342 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.44 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $166.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.79. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $47.35.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 58.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

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).