New Covenant Trust Company N.A. Raises Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

New Covenant Trust Company N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,474 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. New Covenant Trust Company N.A.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $291,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter worth about $354,000. Quent Capital LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 7,422 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $311,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 50.4% in the 1st quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Graypoint LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.7% in the first quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 31,217 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after purchasing an additional 2,234 shares during the period. Finally, Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 13.4% during the first quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 38,585 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on VZ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target 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 lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.11 billion, a PE ratio of 17.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.31 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.35. 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 quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).