Hantz Financial Services Inc. Sells 4,714 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hantz Financial Services Inc. lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 189,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,714 shares during the quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $8,506,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% during 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during 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 buying an additional 4,711,309 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $177,799,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the 2nd 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. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 37.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $287,601,000 after buying an additional 1,916,951 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

VZ stock opened at $44.34 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $36.46 and a one year high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $186.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $42.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.12%. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).