Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Sold by Telos Capital Management Inc.

Telos Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,183 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,867 shares during the quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $657,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Advantage Trust Co boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 549.5% during the second quarter. Advantage Trust Co now owns 591 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 1 North Wealth Services LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $29,000. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $30,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $39.44 on Tuesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35. The stock has a market cap of $166.31 billion, a PE ratio of 8.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business had revenue of $33.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.97%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).