NYSE:VZ

Verizon Communications (VZ) Stock Forecast, Price & News

$32.98

-0.18 (-0.54%)

(As of 09/26/2023 ET)

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Today's Range: $32.82
▼
$33.17
50-Day Range: $32.53
▼
$34.99
52-Week Range: $31.25
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$42.58

Volume: 18.84 million shs
Average Volume: 20.66 million shs
Market Capitalization: $138.65 billion

P/E Ratio: 6.60
Dividend Yield: 7.91%
Price Target: $43.40

Verizon Communications MarketRank™ Forecast

Analyst Rating: Hold
2.43 Rating Score
Upside/Downside: 31.6% Upside
$43.40 Price Target
Short Interest: Healthy
1.01% of Shares Sold Short
Dividend Strength: Strong
Based on Four Factors
Sustainability: -0.95
Upright™ Environmental Score
News Sentiment: 0.72
Based on 28 Articles This Week
Insider Trading: Selling Shares
$418,023 Sold Last Quarter
Proj. Earnings Growth: 0.85%
From $4.72 to $4.76 Per Share

Overall MarketRank^™

MarketRank is calculated as an average of available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

3.51 out of 5 stars

Computer And Technology Sector

2nd out of 583 stocks

Telephone Communication, Except Radio Industry

1st out of 20 stocks

4.2

Analyst's Opinion

Consensus Rating
Verizon Communications has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.46, and is based on 6 buy ratings, 7 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.
Price Target Upside/Downside
According to analysts' consensus price target of $43.40, Verizon Communications has a forecasted upside of 31.6% from its current price of $32.98.
Amount of Analyst Coverage
Verizon Communications has been the subject of 6 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

5.0

Short Interest

Percentage of Shares Shorted
1.01% of the outstanding shares of Verizon Communications have been sold short.
Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover
Verizon Communications has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 1.8, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
Change versus previous month
Short interest in Verizon Communications has recently decreased by 6.50%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

5.0

Dividend Strength

Dividend Leadership
Verizon Communications is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 7.84%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.
Dividend Growth
Verizon Communications has been increasing its dividend for 19 years.
Dividend Coverage
The dividend payout ratio of Verizon Communications is 52.20%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.
Dividend Sustainability
Based on earnings estimates, Verizon Communications will have a dividend payout ratio of 54.83% next year. This indicates that Verizon Communications will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

3.5

Sustainability and ESG

Overall ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Score
Verizon Communications has received a 42.11% net impact score from Upright. Verizon Communications seems to create the most significant positive value in categories "Taxes", "Knowledge infrastructure", and "Distributing knowledge". The positive contribution in the "Knowledge infrastructure" impact category is mostly driven by its "Fixed consumer internet provision", "Mobile consumer internet provision", and "Urban area cellular networks" products. See details.
Environmental Sustainability
The Environmental Impact score for Verizon Communications is -0.95.

2.6

News and Social Media Coverage

News Sentiment
Verizon Communications has a news sentiment score of 0.72. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This news sentiment score is similar to the average news sentiment of Computer and Technology companies.
News Coverage This Week
MarketBeat has tracked 28 news articles for Verizon Communications this week, compared to 23 articles on an average week.
Search Interest
Only 320 people have searched for VZ on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -6% compared to the previous 30 days.
MarketBeat Follows
207 people have added Verizon Communications to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 196% compared to the previous 30 days.

2.5

Company Ownership

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling
In the past three months, Verizon Communications insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $418,023.00 in company stock.
Percentage Held by Insiders
Only 0.02% of the stock of Verizon Communications is held by insiders.
Percentage Held by Institutions
61.06% of the stock of Verizon Communications is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

1.9

Earnings and Valuation

Earnings Growth
Earnings for Verizon Communications are expected to grow by 0.85% in the coming year, from $4.72 to $4.76 per share.
Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market
The P/E ratio of Verizon Communications is 6.60, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 125.63.
Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector
The P/E ratio of Verizon Communications is 6.60, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Computer and Technology sector average P/E ratio of about 291.33.
Price to Earnings Growth Ratio
Verizon Communications has a PEG Ratio of 2.01. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.
Price to Book Value per Share Ratio
Verizon Communications has a P/B Ratio of 1.50. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

See Top Rated MarketRank™ Stocks Here

About Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Stock

Verizon Communications Inc. is the US's largest provider of mobile and telephone services. It has its roots in the original Bell system and is one of only 3 “baby Bells” to exist today. The company was spun off from the original Bell network as Bell Atlantic when it was split into 7 companies in 1984. The original home range was from New Jersey to Virginia but, ironically, shortly after the split the baby bells, including Bell Atlantic, began to merge together in order to expand their territories.

Bell Atlantic acquired NYNEX, another baby Bell, in a move that expanded operations into New York and New England. MCI was also added, expanding the long-distance services, then the company acquired until-then independent operator GTE and became a national carrier. The company changed its name to Verizon following the GTE merger and it is a blend of the Latin word veritas which means Truth and Horizon.

Over the years, Verizon has expanded its territory and its offerings to include mobile, internet and entertainment. Among the more notable were the purchase and merging of AOL and Yahoo! which were later spun off in a sale to Apollo Global Management. Among the more important changes the company has made was to sell off its land-based wirelines. Verizon began selling off its land-based wirelines in 2005 in order to focus more fully on mobile and Internet technology.

Today, Verizon offers communications, information technology, and entertainment products to consumers globally. The company operates in 2 key segments that include Consumer and Business. The Consumer segment provides wireless connectivity, internet access for mobile devices, and wireless and mobile devices including those for the IoT. As of the end of the year 2021, the company laid claim to more than 143 million retail subscribers and was the largest mobile provider by almost 30%.

The Business segment provides connectivity at the enterprise level that includes mobile, networking, Internet access, VOIP and video, security and IoT. As of 2021, this segment had more than 27 million wireless and 477,000 broadband connections. Both the Consumer and Business segments are being upgraded to the 5G protocol. At the end of 2022 more than 175 million users were covered by the service.

Verizon is the US's 24th largest company by revenue and a member of both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company has paid a dividend every quarter since it went public in 2000 and had increased the payment for 18 consecutive years as of 2022.

VZ Price History

30 days | 90 days | 365 days | Advanced Chart

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