Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC Sells 3,269 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 59.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,274 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,269 shares during the quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,267,175 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $14,739,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216,963 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106,887 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,466,446,000 after purchasing an additional 535,322 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,458,264 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $678,739,000 after purchasing an additional 104,447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 13,127,360 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $541,372,000 after purchasing an additional 936,823 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Raymond James increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective 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. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $41.60. The company had a trading volume of 1,674,031 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,502,869. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.84 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $175.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.54, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $43.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.31.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.52%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 101.12%.

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).