Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Bought by M&G Plc

M&G Plc raised its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 838,165 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,942 shares during the quarter. M&G Plc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $37,717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $354,000. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at about $200,000. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.6% in the first quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 21,700 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $911,000 after buying an additional 552 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 39.7% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 12,787 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $537,000 after buying an additional 3,631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CFO4Life Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.4% in the first quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 9,455 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $41.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $173.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.75, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.40 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.15 and a 200-day moving average of $41.37.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend yield of 6.59%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VZ. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Raymond James raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications 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).