Mizuho Securities USA LLC Lowers Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC reduced its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 15.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 272,965 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 51,587 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $12,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at $250,312,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $216,266,000 after purchasing an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 112.6% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $273,507,000 after purchasing an additional 3,481,936 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $536,791,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 37.9% in the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $287,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,916,951 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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 downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of VZ opened at $42.22 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market capitalization of $177.73 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.46 and a 52-week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company's quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, equities 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. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.42%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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).

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