Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Purchases 16,876 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 457,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,876 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $20,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $44.38. 12,372,354 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,515,400. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $186.82 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.46 and a 1-year high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 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).