Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $46.37.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verizon Communications

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE VZ opened at $43.98 on Tuesday. Verizon Communications has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $185.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted 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. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

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).