Empirical Finance LLC Raises Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 144,538 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,182 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $40.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $172.01 billion, a PE ratio of 17.61, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $43.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.93 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.678 dividend. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.64%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

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).