Clarkston Capital Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 4,800 Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Clarkston Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Advantage Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 549.5% in the 2nd quarter. Advantage Trust Co now owns 591 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $30,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $40.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35. The business’s fifty day moving average is $41.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $33.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The company’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.97%.

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).