Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Bought by River Street Advisors LLC

River Street Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,877 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 962 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,678,000 after buying an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $92,445,000 after buying an additional 57,583 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $222,500,000 after buying an additional 129,171 shares during the period. Finally, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.3% in the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 579,713 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $26,035,000 after buying an additional 18,346 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective 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. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE VZ traded up $0.78 on Friday, reaching $41.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 21,482,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,596,234. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.93 and a twelve month high of $45.36. 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 stock has a market cap of $175.33 billion, a PE ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $43.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.51%. 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. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).