Acropolis Investment Management LLC Sells 564 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Acropolis Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,351 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 564 shares during the quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,543,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,294 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $507,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 173.9% during the 3rd quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,097 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $813,000 after acquiring an additional 11,491 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 124,094 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,573,000 after acquiring an additional 3,520 shares in the last quarter. William Allan Corp grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 16.7% during the third quarter. William Allan Corp now owns 9,898 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420 shares during the period. Finally, Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69,342 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,114,000 after buying an additional 734 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $44.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $186.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $42.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.46 and a twelve month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.12%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

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).