AMG National Trust Bank Buys 996 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

AMG National Trust Bank raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 159,085 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 996 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,884,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 368,171,941 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $16,700,279,000 after purchasing an additional 4,347,416 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 109,866,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,983,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,172,175 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 303.9% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 45,475,099 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,062,750,000 after purchasing an additional 431,789 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 41,993,829 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,904,840,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,342 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings lowered Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $38.96 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $47.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.32, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.02. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The business had revenue of $33.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.1%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.97%.

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).