Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Vestor Capital LLC

Vestor Capital LLC lessened its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 99.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 229 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 255,792 shares during the quarter. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $50,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Loudon Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.1% during the second quarter. Loudon Investment Management LLC now owns 46,042 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,712,000 after buying an additional 6,735 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.8% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 5,714 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 364 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $961,000. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 25.7% in the 2nd quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 24,961 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 5,106 shares during the period. Finally, IPG Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 411.8% in the 2nd quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC now owns 57,880 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,153,000 after purchasing an additional 46,570 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $44.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Barclays raised shares of Verizon Communications from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. Finally, Tigress Financial decreased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $64.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.3 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $36.00 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $151.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $42.58.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.27 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 15.58% and a return on equity of 21.26%. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.32 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.39%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.63%.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides 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).