Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

by · The Markets Daily

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Free Report) by 28.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 706,138 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 157,442 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $31,712,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.2% during the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 89,353 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,013,000 after acquiring an additional 1,032 shares during the last quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 50,376 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 32.3% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 25,699 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,154,000 after purchasing an additional 6,273 shares during the last quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% during the third quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 116,950 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,252,000 after buying an additional 3,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 10.1% in the third quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 6,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $311,000 after buying an additional 634 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, 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 research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

View Our Latest Research Report on Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.15 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month 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. The company has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $42.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.55.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. 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 6.29%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Profile

(Free Report)

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).

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