Raymond James Trust N.A. Acquires 20,818 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 4.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 501,787 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after purchasing an additional 20,818 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.'s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $22,535,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 684,908 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $30,759,000 after acquiring an additional 59,387 shares during the period. Investors Research Corp grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.4% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 32,420 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 4,908 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 708 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Finally, Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at about $302,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Friday, hitting $43.10. 10,210,913 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,474,699. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.46 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $181.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.43. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $42.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.51.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company 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 firm's revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.29%. This is an increase 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 presently 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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. Raymond James lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price 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. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.37.

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).