WASHINGTON TRUST Co Decreases Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co cut its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 203,611 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 8,801 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $9,144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pittenger & Anderson Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 50.4% in the first quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VZ. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. 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 report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $41.19. The company had a trading volume of 3,259,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,494,084. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.32. The firm has a market cap of $173.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.67 and a 1-year high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its 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. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 101.12%.

Verizon Communications 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).