Penserra Capital Management LLC Sells 2,530,568 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Penserra Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,696 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,530,568 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,006,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Lane & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 36.0% in the third quarter. Lane & Associates LLC now owns 8,432 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $379,000 after acquiring an additional 2,232 shares during the period. Towercrest Capital Management bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $207,000. KKM Financial LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 51,422 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,309,000 after buying an additional 3,468 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,781,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,459,961 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $65,567,000 after buying an additional 206,921 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on VZ. Bank of America upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of VZ opened at $43.98 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $42.88 and its 200 day moving average is $41.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $185.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.17%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).