Compass Ion Advisors LLC Sells 1,003 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Compass Ion Advisors LLC lowered its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,215 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,003 shares during the quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $728,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,267,175 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $14,739,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216,963 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,581,848,000 after buying an additional 1,106,887 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,466,446,000 after acquiring an additional 535,322 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.6% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,458,264 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $678,739,000 after acquiring an additional 104,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 13,127,360 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $541,372,000 after acquiring an additional 936,823 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Raymond James boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.31.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $43.99. 13,058,370 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,416,428. The company has a market cap of $185.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $42.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.26 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The firm had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.678 dividend. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.12%.

About Verizon Communications

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).