Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Bought by Bell Investment Advisors Inc

Bell Investment Advisors Inc grew its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 79.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,317 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares during the quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Kestra Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 121.8% during the first quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 176,531 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $8,007,000 after buying an additional 96,931 shares during the period. Cadinha & Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2,916.8% during the second quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 347,716 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $15,046,000 after buying an additional 336,190 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 7,297,469 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $309,551,000 after acquiring an additional 722,559 shares in the last quarter. Element Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at $2,799,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 205,416 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $8,888,000 after acquiring an additional 39,445 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on VZ. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2%

VZ stock opened at $41.03 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $41.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $47.35. The company has a market cap of $173.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $33.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.19 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.7%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.97%.

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).