HighTower Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,309,386 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 404,137 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $238,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 1.1 %

VZ opened at $43.85 on Tuesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $36.46 and a one year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.70.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $33.30 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

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).