Dearborn Partners LLC Sells 14,772 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Dearborn Partners LLC trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 918,687 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 14,772 shares during the quarter. Verizon Communications accounts for 1.7% of Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $41,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.4% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 881,348 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $39,578,000 after purchasing an additional 53,103 shares in the last quarter. Oak Harbor Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Harbor Wealth Partners LLC now owns 71,475 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,623 shares during the last quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.6% in the third quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 21,176 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $951,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares during the last quarter. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 182.7% in the third quarter. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,476 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $650,000 after purchasing an additional 9,356 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.3% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 116,005 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,210,000 after buying an additional 5,799 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on VZ. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, 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 note on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $40.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.61, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.84 and a 12 month high of $45.36.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.678 dividend. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.64%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

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).