Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,186,605 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 312,771 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.10% of Verizon Communications worth $188,020,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 17,855 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.9% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 2,058,443 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $92,445,000 after acquiring an additional 57,583 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,954,357 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $222,500,000 after purchasing an additional 129,171 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $44.40. The stock had a trading volume of 12,366,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,515,400. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.14, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. 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 50-day moving average price of $42.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.64. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $33.30 billion for 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%. Verizon Communications's revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. This is an increase from Verizon Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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).