WCG Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 26,017 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 110.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 49,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,017 shares during the quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,142,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,504,150,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,261,648,000 after buying an additional 37,516,167 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $661,720,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 301.2% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $385,750,000 after buying an additional 6,385,197 shares in 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

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.64 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $47.35. The company has a market capitalization of $171.36 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 50-day simple moving average of $40.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.8%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 58.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. BNP Paribas downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus 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).