Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Has $82.97 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4,274.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,917,508 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 1,873,675 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $82,971,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $661,720,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 301.2% during the 1st 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 period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,392,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $16,130,494,000 after buying an additional 4,615,075 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. 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 lowered 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.0%

NYSE:VZ opened at $40.60 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $41.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.47. The stock has a market cap of $171.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.68, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The business had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 58.97%.

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).