Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC Buys 3,955 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 49,598 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,955 shares during the quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,146,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 303.9% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% during the 1st 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 boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 301.2% in 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. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,434,572,000 after buying an additional 5,392,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $50.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.63.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 5.0%

NYSE VZ opened at $41.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $174.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $47.35. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.64.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $34.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.47 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.636-4.728 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 64.34%.

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).