Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Acquires 1,912 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,535 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,912 shares during the quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VZ. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.5% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 7,488,172 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $336,294,000 after purchasing an additional 458,021 shares during the period. German American Bancorp Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. German American Bancorp Inc. now owns 8,387 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $377,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 943,678 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $42,381,000 after buying an additional 74,826 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth about $880,000. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 65.8% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 2,663,502 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $119,618,000 after acquiring an additional 1,056,863 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank boosted 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine equities research 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock opened at $43.15 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.53. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.29%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).