First Dallas Securities Inc. Has $1.43 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

First Dallas Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,728 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,376,000. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 9.7% during the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after purchasing an additional 17,855 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1,934.5% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $48,503,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,930 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $92,445,000 after buying an additional 57,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank upped 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 note on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $42.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $178.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $42.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.83.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).