Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03, RTT News reports. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. Verizon Communications updated its FY24 guidance to $4.50-$4.70 EPS.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.9 %

VZ opened at $40.49 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $170.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.57%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verizon Communications

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FIL Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $317,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $316,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.9% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 61,643 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,324,000 after purchasing an additional 26,997 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 12,996 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 779 shares during the period. Finally, Oarsman Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 90.5% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 28,387 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,070,000 after purchasing an additional 13,487 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Company 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).