Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. Increases Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 116,005 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 5,799 shares during the quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.9% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 958,130 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $43,030,000 after purchasing an additional 61,500 shares during the last quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC now owns 37,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,706,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 126.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,057,433 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $47,489,000 after buying an additional 589,994 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 114,083 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,673 shares during the period. Finally, Cable Hill Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 26.5% during the third quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 11,495 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 2,411 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ remained flat at $41.14 during trading on Thursday. The stock had a trading volume of 1,370,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,525,477. The company’s 50-day moving average is $43.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $173.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.73, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.84 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).