Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Has $2.11 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 46,871 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 548 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.9 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.98 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $42.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $185.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.17%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

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).