Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. Cuts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 25,940 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 618 shares during the period. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,165,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its position 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 valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter worth about $46,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.51 during trading on Thursday, hitting $40.65. 3,294,843 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,504,471. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $43.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.37. The stock has a market cap of $171.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.40 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.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

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).