AlphaCore Capital LLC Sells 318 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

AlphaCore Capital LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,481 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 318 shares during the period. AlphaCore Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,728,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VZ. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $354,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 173,742 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $7,560,000 after acquiring an additional 1,384 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 23.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 58,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,446,000 after purchasing an additional 10,951 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 88.5% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 81,441 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,417,000 after purchasing an additional 38,237 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.5% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 130,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,492,000 after purchasing an additional 8,033 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target 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 report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.57 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a market cap of $179.18 billion, a PE ratio of 18.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.51.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost 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 6.37%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).