West Family Investments Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

West Family Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 26.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,172 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,620 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,565,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealthquest Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wealthquest Corp now owns 5,312 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 24.0% in the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,860,079 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $340,106,000 after buying an additional 1,519,830 shares during the last quarter. F m Investments LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.5% during the second quarter. F m Investments LLC now owns 132,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,712,000 after buying an additional 5,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,504,150,000. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $771,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen decreased their target price 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. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Two 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $41.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $173.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.7%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio 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).