Icon Wealth Advisors LLC Has $140,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Icon Wealth Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 95.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,120 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 65,488 shares during the period. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $140,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 15.4% during the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $11,678,000 after purchasing an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $9,095,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $92,445,000 after buying an additional 57,583 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $222,500,000 after acquiring an additional 129,171 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America boosted 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. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $43.98. 28,328,551 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,547,770. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.46 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. 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 6.17%. 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).