Argus Reiterates Buy Rating For Verizon On ‘Slackening’ Competition

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ 1% and its impressive 4.1 percent dividend has been one of the hottest large cap stocks in the market in 2016. Despite the stock’s 19.1 percent year-to-date gain, Argus analyst Joseph Bonner still sees significant upside for the stock following the acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. YHOO 0.86%.

“We believe the company’s long-term strategy remains intact as competition appears to be slackening – at least temporarily – in the wireless industry,” Bonner explains.

According to Bonner, Verizon’s recently-reported quarterly adjusted organic revenue decline of 3.5 percent is due to fewer-than-expected wireless phone activations on device installment plans, a decline in customer upgrades, and the migration of subscribers to unsubsidized rate plans.

Argus was pleased by the $4.8 billion price Verizon paid for Yahoo, especially given the $6-8 billion rumors that had circulated at the beginning of the bidding process. Bonner estimates Verizon paid roughly 6.2x Yahoo’s 2016 EBITDA.

“We think that Verizon got…

Click here to continue reading

Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common SenseI don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!