Scotiabank Issues Positive Forecast for Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Stock Price

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) had its target price hoisted by Scotiabank from $47.00 to $47.50 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the cell phone carrier’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VZ. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.44.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $40.64 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $40.85 and a 200-day moving average of $41.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.67%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verizon Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after acquiring an additional 565,842 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $815,636,000 after acquiring an additional 502,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,493,998 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $561,105,000 after acquiring an additional 46,100 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).