Legal & General Group Plc Sells 783,847 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,984,621 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 783,847 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.64% of Verizon Communications worth $1,167,625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Advantage Trust Co increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 549.5% during the second quarter. Advantage Trust Co now owns 591 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $40.76 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.84 billion, a PE ratio of 8.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $47.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $41.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.56. 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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS 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 given a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.8%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.97%.

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).