Brokerages Set Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV) Target Price at $9.97

Shares of Telefônica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.97.

A number of research firms have recently commented on VIV. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Telefônica Brasil from $10.60 to $9.20 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Telefônica Brasil from $10.40 to $9.20 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Telefônica Brasil from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays raised Telefônica Brasil from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $11.80 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

Institutional Trading of Telefônica Brasil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in Telefônica Brasil by 41.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 264,413 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,716,000 after purchasing an additional 77,005 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of Telefônica Brasil during the fourth quarter worth about $242,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in Telefônica Brasil by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 15,192,635 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $114,704,000 after buying an additional 1,053,218 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil in the fourth quarter valued at about $403,000. Finally, Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Telefônica Brasil during the 4th quarter worth approximately $237,000. Institutional investors own 5.16% of the company’s stock.

Telefônica Brasil Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VIV opened at $8.62 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.72. Telefônica Brasil has a 1 year low of $7.47 and a 1 year high of $10.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Telefônica Brasil (NYSE:VIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. Telefônica Brasil had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 7.77%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Telefônica Brasil will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Telefônica Brasil Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a $0.0215 dividend. This is a positive change from Telefônica Brasil’s previous dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 25th. Telefônica Brasil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.18%.

About Telefônica Brasil

Telefônica Brasil SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mobile telecommunications company in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, 4.5G, and 5G, as well as mobile value-added and wireless roaming services.