Encompass Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Encompass Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,505 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the quarter. Encompass Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $562,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at approximately $354,000. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,186 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $264,000. D Orazio & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 78.3% in the first quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 11,572 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 5,081 shares during the period. Finally, Delta Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth $209,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank upped their price objective 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. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective 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. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $40.39 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.41 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.41. The firm has a market cap of $170.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 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 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 for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict 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. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 6.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).