Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Purchases 84,030 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 80.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 188,477 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 84,030 shares during the period. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $8,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 372,787,016 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $16,130,494,000 after acquiring an additional 4,615,075 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 208,213,255 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,009,388,000 after purchasing an additional 4,205,449 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 100,326,792 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,322,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101,504 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at $2,504,150,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake 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 buying an additional 431,789 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. 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 note on Tuesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.31.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.91 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.24. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $47.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.33.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The company had revenue of $33.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, January 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 12th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.7%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).