Vinva Investment Management Ltd Acquires 29,290 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 304,055 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,290 shares during the quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $12,865,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $661,720,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 6,385,197 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 20.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,434,572,000 after acquiring an additional 5,392,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $16,130,494,000 after acquiring an additional 4,615,075 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on 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, BNP Paribas Exane lowered Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ opened at $40.90 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.60. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $47.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.43 billion, a PE ratio of 8.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.7%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 58.97%.

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).