Bogart Wealth LLC Has $786,000 Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bogart Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,500 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 302 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Pittenger & Anderson Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 50.4% during the 1st quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VZ shares. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, 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 research report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock opened at $41.86 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.34 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $176.18 billion, a PE ratio of 15.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $43.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.29.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.48%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 101.12%.

Verizon Communications 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).