Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Buys 2,843 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,604 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,843 shares during the quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,240,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.15 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $42.90 and its 200-day moving average is $41.56.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Raymond James boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

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).