Towercrest Capital Management Takes Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Towercrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,615 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,678,000 after acquiring an additional 37,732 shares during the last quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,095,000 after acquiring an additional 17,855 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $92,445,000 after acquiring an additional 57,583 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $222,500,000 after acquiring an additional 129,171 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VZ. Citigroup raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James raised 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $43.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.55. 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 $181.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.46 and a 1 year high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.29%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 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).