Cerity Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Cerity Partners LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,428,753 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 24,021 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $61,821,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,504,150,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $661,720,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 301.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $385,750,000 after buying an additional 6,385,197 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $16,130,494,000 after buying an additional 4,615,075 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on VZ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective 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. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered 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 report on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE VZ opened at $41.70 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $175.82 billion, a PE ratio of 8.91, a PEG ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.33. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $47.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, January 12th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 12th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.6%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 58.97%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

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).