Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Has $1.53 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,239 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 513 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77,478 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,352,000 after buying an additional 8,181 shares during the last quarter. Straight Path Wealth Management acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $220,000. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.4% in the second quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,908 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $429,000 after acquiring an additional 2,422 shares during the last quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC now owns 8,858 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,734,229 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $372,384,000 after purchasing an additional 49,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on VZ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Arete Research raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $50.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.63.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $40.56 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $43.23 and a 200-day moving average of $43.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $170.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $34.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.47 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 19.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.636-4.728 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.8%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 64.34%.

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).