Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. cut its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 121,729 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 6,940 shares during the quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,464,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% in the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 22,831 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after buying an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. WT Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 41,783 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after acquiring an additional 1,764 shares in the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 77.4% during the third quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 110,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,940,000 after purchasing an additional 48,000 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 206.6% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 240,609 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $10,806,000 after purchasing an additional 162,131 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.1% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 65,562 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,944,000 after purchasing an additional 6,006 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America boosted 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. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.31.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 5.0 %

NYSE:VZ traded down $2.17 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $41.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 36,020,469 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,504,395. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $31.26 and a one year high of $45.36. The business’s 50-day moving average is $43.00 and its 200-day moving average is $41.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $174.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The company had revenue of $32.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date is 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 6.53%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 101.12%.

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).