Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,324,387 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,758,958 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.77% of Verizon Communications worth $1,420,391,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 95.3% during the third quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 625 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 739.5% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 680 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the period. Winnow Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth $34,000. Silicon Valley Capital Partners lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 52.4% in the 2nd quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 782 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, Director Hans Erik Vestberg sold 200,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $9,922,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 145,069 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,196,873.09. The trade was a 57.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Mary-Lee Stillwell sold 8,569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $428,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 43,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,189,100. This trade represents a 16.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 218,148 shares of company stock valued at $10,780,356. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on VZ. Williams Trading set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised Verizon Communications from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Monday, January 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.02.

Key Verizon Communications News

Here are the key news stories impacting Verizon Communications this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Verizon demonstrated a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) proof-of-concept at MWC Barcelona with Aptiv and Wind River that used Verizon’s 5G + edge compute to share real‑time sensor data between vehicles, highlighting concrete enterprise use cases (automatic emergency braking, cooperative driving) that could translate into new connected‑vehicle revenue streams for Verizon Business. Verizon V2X Trial Highlights 5G Edge Potential Aptiv/Wind River press release
• Neutral Sentiment: Management presented at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference — investor outreach that can help clarify strategy and guidance but contains no headline surprises in the summary provided. Conference transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of AST SpaceMobile’s big revenue beat was noted in the newsfeed; while AST’s scale could be complementary to space-based cellular initiatives, any direct impact on Verizon is speculative at this point. AST SpaceMobile revenue story
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market weakness tied to escalation fears in the U.S.-Iran situation sent major indexes lower, a headwind for equities generally that can pressure shares even of defensive telecom names like VZ. Market coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: SVP Mary‑Lee Stillwell sold 8,569 shares at about $50.00 (a ~16.4% reduction in her holdings) — a routine executive sale that may be viewed neutrally by some investors but can apply short‑term downward pressure on sentiment. SEC filing: Insider sale filing

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.8%

Verizon Communications stock opened at $50.86 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.39 and a 52 week high of $51.10. The stock has a market cap of $214.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.56, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $43.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders 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 is Friday, April 10th. This represents a $2.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.6%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 68.15%.

Verizon Communications Company 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.