Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ Shares Acquired by Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 416,289 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,260 shares during the quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $18,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Advisory Research Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the third quarter. Advisory Research Inc. now owns 185,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $8,149,000 after purchasing an additional 27,696 shares during the period. Athena Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Athena Investment Management now owns 26,836 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,179,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,214,147 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $273,112,000 after buying an additional 292,350 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,592,460 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $992,939,000 after buying an additional 646,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 65.3% during the 3rd quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 15,438 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $678,000 after buying an additional 6,098 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, Director Hans Erik Vestberg sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $9,922,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 145,069 shares in the company, valued at $7,196,873.09. This represents a 57.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Joseph J. Russo sold 9,579 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.88, for a total value of $429,905.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 44,045 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,976,739.60. This trade represents a 17.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 218,148 shares of company stock worth $10,780,356. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. Weiss Ratings upgraded Verizon Communications from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $50.25 to $54.50 in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Williams Trading set a $54.00 price objective on Verizon Communications in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Evercore boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.03.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4%

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.71 during trading on Friday, reaching $51.34. 5,967,888 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,706,479. The company’s 50-day moving average is $45.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.91. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.39 and a 52-week high of $51.67. The firm has a market cap of $216.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.31.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $36.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.20 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 12.43%.The company’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. Verizon Communications has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.900-4.950 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 10th will be issued a $0.7075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 10th. This represents a $2.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.15%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) is a major U.S.-based telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and information services. Its operations span consumer and business markets, with core offerings that include wireless voice and data services, fixed-line broadband and fiber-optic services, and enterprise networking solutions. Verizon is headquartered in New York City and operates a nationwide wireless network that supports consumer subscribers as well as business and government customers.

The company’s consumer products include mobile phone plans, unlimited data services, and Fios, its branded fiber-optic internet, television and voice service for homes and small businesses.