Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Acquired by Moseley Investment Management Inc.

Moseley Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,273 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,371 shares during the quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,872,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,759,000 after buying an additional 16,704 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 68,641 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,114,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 31.7% in the first quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 30,213 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,370,000 after buying an additional 7,265 shares in the last quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.6% in the first quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 69,938 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,172,000 after buying an additional 9,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.9% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 3,291 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $149,000 after buying an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VZ. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.63.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $40.85 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.29. The company has a market capitalization of $172.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $34.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.47 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 19.61%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.636-4.728 EPS. As a group, equities research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.8%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 64.34%.

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).