Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 25,225 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 876,927 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 25,225 shares during the quarter. Verizon Communications makes up approximately 0.5% of Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $37,945,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Fountainhead AM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 28.0% in the second quarter. Fountainhead AM LLC now owns 6,596 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 1,442 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 42,985 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 3,092 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 829,284 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,883,000 after acquiring an additional 74,888 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.6% during the second quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 27,219 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after acquiring an additional 945 shares during the period. Finally, PFG Advisors grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 38.9% in the second quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 25,295 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 7,085 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Verizon Communications from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.50 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.03 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $41.86 and a 200-day moving average of $42.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $47.35. The stock has a market cap of $168.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given 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 was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.9%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 58.97%.

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).