MML Investors Services LLC Boosts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,457,858 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,384 shares during the quarter. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $65,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $44,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.4 %

VZ opened at $42.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $42.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.80. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.46 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).