Channel Wealth LLC Has $287,000 Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Channel Wealth LLC lessened its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 20.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,173 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,815 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at about $2,015,000. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 41,924 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,729,000 after buying an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,212 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,081,000 after buying an additional 2,997 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.9% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 942,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $38,888,000 after acquiring an additional 84,973 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 67.4% during the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 642,324 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $26,489,000 after acquiring an additional 258,683 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $38.32 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The business’s fifty day moving average is $41.11 and its 200 day moving average is $41.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $161.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. 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).