LPL Financial LLC Acquires 458,021 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,488,172 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 458,021 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.18% of Verizon Communications worth $336,294,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on VZ. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.57 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.51. The company has a market cap of $179.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.35, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The company 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 was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.37%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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).