Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Announces Earnings Results

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. Verizon Communications updated its FY24 guidance to $4.50-$4.70 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 4.500-4.700 EPS.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.69 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $40.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.44. Verizon Communications has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $166.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).