Forza Wealth Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,509 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,820 shares during the quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 303.9% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,261,648,000 after acquiring an additional 37,516,167 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $530,576,000 after buying an additional 10,300,369 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 301.2% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $385,750,000 after buying an additional 6,385,197 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,434,572,000 after buying an additional 5,392,416 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.53.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.6%

VZ opened at $43.95 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $185.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.36. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $47.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $43.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $34.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.47 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 13.28%.The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.636-4.728 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.3%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.17%.

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).