Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 129,171 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $222,500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $177,799,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,081,241 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $39.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.88. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.15 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $168.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.44.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.78%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group boosted 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. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.46.

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).