Investment Management Corp of Ontario Sells 82,342 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Investment Management Corp of Ontario reduced its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 37.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 139,789 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 82,342 shares during the quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,278,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,678,000 after acquiring an additional 37,732 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,376,000. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,095,000 after purchasing an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1,934.5% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $48,503,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,930 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 2.9% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $92,445,000 after buying an additional 57,583 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $43.81 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.46 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $184.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.88, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.44.

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. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

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).