Conning Inc. Has $34.04 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Conning Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 774,503 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 33,585 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $34,039,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $16,130,494,000 after purchasing an additional 4,615,075 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 208,213,255 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,009,388,000 after buying an additional 4,205,449 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 100,326,792 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,322,700,000 after buying an additional 1,101,504 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,504,150,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 21,159,040 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $915,552,000 after acquiring an additional 3,743,892 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on VZ shares. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. BNP Paribas lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.47.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.83 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $167.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.34. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.94 and a 52 week high of $47.35.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 12th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 58.97%.

More Verizon Communications News

Here are the key news stories impacting Verizon Communications this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investors shrugged off the outage and the stock rose as traders emphasized fundamentals and dividend stability over the service disruption. Verizon’s outage may have annoyed users, but it didn’t bother investors
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/commentary pieces highlight Verizon as a dividend/turnaround play that could attract income-focused buyers, supporting demand for the shares. The Smartest Dividend Stocks to Buy With $10,000 Right Now
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic initiatives — notably Verizon’s push in 5G-enabled digital healthcare and enterprise services — are cited as potential medium-term growth drivers that offset one-off operational problems. Can Verizon’s Digital Healthcare Initiatives Boost Its Market Shares?
• Positive Sentiment: Verizon Business won industry recognition (Medallia Expy Awards), a modest reputational positive for enterprise services and customer experience messaging. Medallia Honors Global Experience Leaders with 2026 Expy Awards
• Neutral Sentiment: Verizon updated terms on performance-based equity awards for executives — governance/compensation detail that investors will note but that is unlikely to move the stock materially by itself. Verizon Updates Executive Performance-Based Equity Award Terms
• Negative Sentiment: Outage scale reported as roughly 175,000 affected customers in some feeds; visible service interruptions (SOS/no bars) increase near-term reputational risk and could spur customer complaints. Verizon Outage Hits Around 175,000 Customers
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple major outlets and outage trackers (Downdetector) logged spikes and widespread reports across cities — a reminder of operational vulnerability that could prompt inquiries or require remediation spending. Verizon’s network down for thousands of users in US, Downdetector shows
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage from the WSJ, Forbes, Business Insider and Financial Post documents outages in major metros (NY, LA, Seattle, Miami), highlighting potential customer impact and short-term service disruption. Verizon Users Experience Outages Nationwide Verizon Outage: Reports Of Issues Spike Verizon outage hits users across US Verizon Users Report Service Outage Affecting Thousands

Verizon Communications Profile

Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) is a major U.S.-based telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and information services. Its operations span consumer and business markets, with core offerings that include wireless voice and data services, fixed-line broadband and fiber-optic services, and enterprise networking solutions. Verizon is headquartered in New York City and operates a nationwide wireless network that supports consumer subscribers as well as business and government customers.

The company’s consumer products include mobile phone plans, unlimited data services, and Fios, its branded fiber-optic internet, television and voice service for homes and small businesses.