Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Purchased by Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,658,745 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 79,335 shares during the period. Verizon Communications comprises about 1.3% of Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $68,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Motiv8 Investments LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.5% during the second quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 19,262 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175 shares during the last quarter. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. now owns 9,729 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 774 shares during the last quarter. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 39.2% during the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. now owns 23,464 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $968,000 after buying an additional 6,604 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Group LTD raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Main Street Group LTD now owns 9,348 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its position in Verizon Communications by 30.2% during the second quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 983,054 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $40,541,000 after acquiring an additional 228,116 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of VZ traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $41.15. The company had a trading volume of 18,100,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,511,424. The stock has a market cap of $173.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.53. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The company had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The firm’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VZ. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.66.

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).