Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $43.86.

VZ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $41.54 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $174.65 billion, a PE ratio of 15.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.52 and its 200 day moving average is $37.31. Verizon Communications has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The company had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 96.38%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Verizon Communications

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of VZ. Ossiam lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 658.6% during the second quarter. Ossiam now owns 1,361,200 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $50,623,000 after buying an additional 1,181,766 shares during the period. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 173.7% during the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $21,137,000 after buying an additional 413,869 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the period. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,677,000 after buying an additional 3,020 shares during the period. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth $306,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

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).