Fmr LLC Buys 565,842 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Fmr LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 565,842 shares during the quarter. Fmr LLC owned 0.69% of Verizon Communications worth $1,305,727,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth approximately $250,312,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after purchasing an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 112.6% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $273,507,000 after buying an additional 3,481,936 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.6% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $536,791,000 after buying an additional 2,040,247 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $44.37 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $186.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).