Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 3.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,263,848 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after acquiring an additional 40,237 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $56,759,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,581,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106,887 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 35,561,841 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,466,446,000 after purchasing an additional 535,322 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $815,636,000 after purchasing an additional 502,949 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.6% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,458,264 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $678,739,000 after buying an additional 104,447 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 13,127,360 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $541,372,000 after buying an additional 936,823 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target 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. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research 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 stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.65 during trading on Friday, hitting $43.15. The company had a trading volume of 17,014,351 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,504,627. The firm has a market capitalization of $181.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. Verizon Communications's revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. On average, research analysts expect 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 given a $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.29%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).