MONECO Advisors LLC Buys 31,379 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

MONECO Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 115.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,567 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,379 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,630,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth $250,312,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the 3rd 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. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings 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 worth $273,507,000 after acquiring an additional 3,481,936 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,040,247 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 37.9% in the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $287,601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916,951 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Raymond James boosted their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $41.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 842,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,498,893. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.84 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.31. The stock has a market cap of $174.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.54, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $0.678 dividend. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.55%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 101.12%.

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).