Freedom Investment Management Inc. Sells 2,511 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 24,095 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,511 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $44.40 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $186.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.14, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.64. 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 released 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 firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. 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 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

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).