Advance Capital Management Inc. Has $829,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Advance Capital Management Inc. trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,454 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 366 shares during the quarter. Advance Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.4% during the second quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,760 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $732,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.4% during the second quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 54,926 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,240,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the second quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 21,568 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $889,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 5,383 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,715 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.50 to $46.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.26.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.86 on Tuesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.62 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $184.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.37, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s fifty day moving average is $42.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.63.

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

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 101.12%.

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).