Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC Has $260,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC lessened its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,798 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.4% in the second quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,760 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $732,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,626 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $253,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 54,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,240,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 21,568 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $889,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Finally, Wynn Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 5,945 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James raised 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. TD Cowen upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.26.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $43.23 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.23. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.62 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $181.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The firm had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.05 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.21 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.27%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 101.12%.

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).