The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Communication Services company by 0.23% to 333.47 million shares with purchase of 0.76 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.93% valued currently at $12.57 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 99663.0 to 223.11 million shares. And Charles Schwab Investment Managem has lifted its position by 4.84% or 4.53 million shares – to 98.03 million shares.
With over 18.58 million Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $38.56 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $716.27 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 13.38% and its price on 01/12/24 gained nearly 1.74%. Currently, there are 4.20B common shares owned by the public and among those 4.20B shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 27 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VZ have a consensus price objective of $41.58. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $48.00 and a low of $32.15. The average price target is 7.26% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -19.94% over that period. But an upside of 19.67% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $42.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 99 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 43 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,105,125 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 56 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 659,859 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Verizon Communications Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 118.57 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $4.47 billion. The company bought an additional 0.14 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.82% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.48 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 101.52 million shares valued at over $3.83 billion and representing 2.42% of the shares outstanding. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF bought 68473.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 51.73 million shares at a value of $1.95 billion. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF now owns shares totaling to 1.23% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) opened at $38.19, up $0.29 from a prior closing price of $37.90. However, the script later moved the day high at 38.77, up 1.74%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -4.08% and 24.75% over the past three months. VZ shares are trading 2.28% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -6.36% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $30.14 and touched a high of $42.49 over the same period. VZ has an average intraday trading volume of 22.58 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 1.02%, 3.12%, and 8.31% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) shares accounts for 61.95% of the company’s 4.20B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 30.12%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 32.34% and 0.25% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $162.11B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.40. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 7.77, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.96. The company has a PEG of 29.55 and a Quick Ratio of 0.60 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.76. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.97% over the week and 1.63% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) will achieve an EPS of $1.08 for the current quarter, $1.12 for the next quarter and $4.59 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.03 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.16. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.19 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -9.09%, and -2.28% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 0.26% over the next five years, compared to -7.23% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 27 brokerage firm advisors rate Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.22. Specifically, 11 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 12 of the 27 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the VZ, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Wolfe Research stated their Outperform rating for the stock in a research note on January 04, 2024, with the firm’s price target at $46.
