Public Sector Pension Investment Board Sells 366,581 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Public Sector Pension Investment Board cut its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 45.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 444,345 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 366,581 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $19,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $16,130,494,000 after buying an additional 4,615,075 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 208,213,255 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,009,388,000 after acquiring an additional 4,205,449 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 100,326,792 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,322,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101,504 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,504,150,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 21.5% in the second quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,159,040 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $915,552,000 after purchasing an additional 3,743,892 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. William Blair raised shares of Verizon Communications to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Monday, January 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.02.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE VZ opened at $49.00 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $38.39 and a one year high of $50.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.33. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.94.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $36.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.20 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.900-4.950 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.7075 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 10th. This represents a $2.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 68.15%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Joseph J. Russo sold 9,579 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.88, for a total value of $429,905.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 44,045 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,976,739.60. The trade was a 17.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Profile

Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) is a major U.S.-based telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and information services. Its operations span consumer and business markets, with core offerings that include wireless voice and data services, fixed-line broadband and fiber-optic services, and enterprise networking solutions. Verizon is headquartered in New York City and operates a nationwide wireless network that supports consumer subscribers as well as business and government customers.

The company’s consumer products include mobile phone plans, unlimited data services, and Fios, its branded fiber-optic internet, television and voice service for homes and small businesses.