Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Stake Lessened by River Street Advisors LLC

River Street Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 73.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,590 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 12,780 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $202,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc now owns 21,312 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $937,000 after buying an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.2% during the third quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 17,865 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $785,000 after buying an additional 2,752 shares in the last quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the third quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 23,832 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the period. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 54.8% during the third quarter. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. now owns 10,386 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $456,000 after acquiring an additional 3,677 shares during the period. Finally, Earned Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 24.0% in the third quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,359 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $323,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.47.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $40.46 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $170.61 billion, a PE ratio of 8.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.34. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $47.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.94.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, January 12th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 12th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.97%.

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.