Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,990 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,437 shares during the quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,571,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Denver PWM LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter valued at about $46,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on VZ. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.46.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ traded down $0.16 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $40.08. The company had a trading volume of 9,111,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,338,168. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.89. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.15 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $168.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.44.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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).