Northern Trust Corp Reduces Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Northern Trust Corp trimmed its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,606,700 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,037,417 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.01% of Verizon Communications worth $1,584,543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its position in Verizon Communications by 95,391.7% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 136,655,301 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,082,211,000 after acquiring an additional 136,512,194 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after buying an additional 11,987,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 14,194.1% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,221,577 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $358,627,000 after acquiring an additional 9,157,064 shares in the last quarter. 61.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $37.12. 2,358,709 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,026,510. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $42.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $156.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.40.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th were issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.17%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VZ. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $44.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 26th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. Tigress Financial lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $64.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 2nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

Verizon Communications Profile

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).