13,623 Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Bought by MFG Investments LLC

MFG Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 13,623 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $625,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VZ. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 8,917.5% during the third quarter. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,280 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $472,000 after purchasing an additional 10,166 shares during the period. Associated Banc Corp acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,713,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Integrity Alliance LLC. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 41.4% in the third quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. now owns 74,735 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,428,000 after buying an additional 21,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrity Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 52.3% in the third quarter. Integrity Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 18,460 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $847,000 after buying an additional 6,342 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.2%

Verizon Communications stock opened at $45.15 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $187.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.28. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.68 and a 1-year high of $51.68. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 26th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The firm had revenue of $34.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.21 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th were issued a $0.7075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.3%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.19%.

Key Verizon Communications News

Here are the key news stories impacting Verizon Communications this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Verizon and Ericsson plan a nationwide rollout of AI-powered radio-network automation. Early field deployments reportedly improved downlink throughput by up to 8.9% and uplink throughput by up to 8%, offering a potential boost to network capacity and efficiency. Verizon and Ericsson partner to transform AI-native Autonomous Networks
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings strength and Verizon’s customer additions may help reassure investors that the carrier can contend with new rivals; a report notes that Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone customers and points to strong results and raised guidance as evidence of resilience. SpaceX Sent Verizon and T-Mobile Stocks Tumbling—Did Wall Street Overreact?
• Negative Sentiment: SpaceX is reportedly discussing buying Boost Mobile or partnering with it to accelerate entry into wireless, potentially creating a new competitor. The talks remain preliminary, and Boost’s reliance on AT&T and T-Mobile network agreements could complicate a deal, but the prospect has weighed on telecom sentiment. SpaceX reportedly wants to buy Boost Mobile

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Arete Research reduced their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 27th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. Freedom Broker raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $51.50 to $50.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.05.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 1,100 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.00, for a total value of $47,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 98,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,251,238. The trade was a 1.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 11,000 shares of company stock valued at $516,373 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Profile

Verizon Communications Inc is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and digital connectivity services. Through its consumer business, Verizon offers mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and other connected devices, home internet, fixed wireless access, and fiber-optic broadband services under the Fios brand.

Verizon also serves businesses, government agencies, and other organizations with wireless connectivity, private networks, internet and data services, managed communications, cloud and security solutions, and Internet of Things services.