Huntington National Bank Increases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Huntington National Bank boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 126.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,057,433 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 589,994 shares during the quarter. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $47,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,760 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.5% during 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 last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,450 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings 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. Finally, Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 7,628 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $343,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on VZ. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.8 %

VZ opened at $41.15 on Thursday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.81 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $173.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $43.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS 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 last year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.59%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).