Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.03 EPS

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03, RTT News reports. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Verizon Communications updated its FY24 guidance to $4.50-$4.70 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 4.500-4.700 EPS.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of VZ opened at $39.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $166.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Verizon Communications has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

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).