Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. Boosts Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 116,005 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 5,799 shares during the quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,210,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. TD Cowen upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock remained flat at $41.14 during trading hours on Thursday. The stock had a trading volume of 1,370,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,525,477. 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 company has a market cap of $173.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.84 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $43.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.59%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).