Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Buys 7,453 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 516,737 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,453 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $22,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in 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 last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $530,576,000 after acquiring an additional 10,300,369 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 301.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $385,750,000 after acquiring an additional 6,385,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 20.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,434,572,000 after acquiring an additional 5,392,416 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on VZ. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $50.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $40.29 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $47.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $43.12 and a 200-day moving average of $43.04.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The cell phone carrier reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 19.61%. The company had revenue of $34.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.34%.

About Verizon Communications

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).