National Pension Service Increases Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 14.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,226,214 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,188,090 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.22% of Verizon Communications worth $414,349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.4% during the third quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 24,507 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,101,000 after buying an additional 1,029 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 6.8% during the third quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $645,000 after acquiring an additional 920 shares during the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 32.1% in the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 416,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $18,683,000 after acquiring an additional 101,000 shares in the last quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.0% in the third quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC now owns 34,978 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,572,000 after purchasing an additional 4,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 19.2% during the third quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 49,046 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 7,911 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VZ. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $41.35 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $43.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.40 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $174.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. Equities research 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 paid a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.56%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

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).