HighTower Advisors LLC Has $238.38 Million Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,309,386 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after acquiring an additional 404,137 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned about 0.13% of Verizon Communications worth $238,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the second quarter worth $33,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Scotiabank increased 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. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.02 on Tuesday, hitting $43.83. The stock had a trading volume of 15,337,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,436,447. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.46 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.44. 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 stock's 50 day moving average is $42.91 and its 200-day moving average is $41.70.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm's revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share 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 is a positive change from Verizon Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.19%. 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).