Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Free Report) by 17.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,756,413 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 261,401 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $70,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,711,309 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at about $177,799,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 184.3% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,428,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $217,087,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $274,052,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656,396 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.
Verizon Communications Price Performance
Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.68. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $164.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.46.
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.94%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.
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).
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