Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. Has $1.18 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 35.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 28,587 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 7,428 shares during the quarter. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank upped their price target 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. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $41.65 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $35.93 and a one year high of $45.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.33 billion, a PE ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.51%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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).