SouthState Corp Sells 29,153 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

SouthState Corp reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 39.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,595 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 29,153 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,048,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in 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 in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on VZ. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.5 %

VZ stock opened at $42.29 on Tuesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.20 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The business’s 50-day moving average is $43.02 and its 200 day moving average is $41.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $178.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.41%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 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).