Riverview Trust Co Has $290,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Riverview Trust Co reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,451 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 552 shares during the quarter. Riverview Trust Co’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Hawaiian Bank grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 24,005 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after acquiring an additional 4,230 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 19,862 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 2,206 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 93,214 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,911,000 after purchasing an additional 5,631 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth $360,000. Finally, Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 7.1% during the first quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID now owns 7,588 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $318,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on VZ shares. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.31.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.99 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.29. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.26 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $185.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 8.38%. The business had revenue of $32.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.678 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.17%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 101.12%.

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).