Bank of Montreal Can Lowers Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bank of Montreal Can reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,604,029 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,412,242 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.28% of Verizon Communications worth $520,905,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $210,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.4% during the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 83,956 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,770,000 after buying an additional 374 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.3% during the third quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 72,342 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,249,000 after acquiring an additional 9,025 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 46,871 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after acquiring an additional 548 shares during the period. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 6,355 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VZ. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.57 during trading on Monday, reaching $43.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,118,268 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,432,813. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. 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 firm has a market cap of $184.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $42.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.56.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company 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 posted $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.20%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).