Prossimo Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Prossimo Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,444 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,231 shares during the quarter. Prossimo Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hudock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Hudock Inc. now owns 39,842 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,724,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 80,178 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,637,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.2% during the second quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 21,255 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Camden National Bank grew its position in Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the second quarter. Camden National Bank now owns 5,666 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $245,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the period. Finally, Monetary Management Group Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 0.8% during the first quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 30,150 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,368,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VZ. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $41.05 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.44. The company has a market cap of $173.08 billion, a PE ratio of 8.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $33.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The firm’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.97%.

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).