Market Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – About 40,000 unionized Verizon workers walk off the job

[Reuters] – Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers walked off the job on Wednesday in one of the largest U.S. strikes in recent years after contract talks hit an impasse, and got a boost as U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders joined them at a Brooklyn rally ahead of the New York primary next week. Front-runner Hillary Clinton, who faces Sanders in the primary on April 19, also voiced support for the strikers and urged Verizon to go back to the bargaining table. Read more on this. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) , valued at $209.08B, started the session at $52.07. Looking at the equity, the company’s one day range is $50.84 to $52.09 with a one year range of $38.06 to $54.49. VZ shares are currently priced at 13.05x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 3.45x earnings multiple. The company pays shareholders $2.26 per share annually in dividends, yielding 4.33%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 26 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $1.06 per share, which would be $0.04 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.00 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $3.98, which would be a $0.01 better than last year. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $32.54 Billion. If reported, that would be a 1.75% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Bernstein downgraded VZ from Outperform to Mkt Perform (Apr 7, 2016). Previously, Jefferies downgraded VZ from Buy to Hold. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $51.81, which is 0.50% below where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:VZ) Similar Articles: Market Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon (VZ) Stock is the ‘Chart of the Day’ Stock Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – How Could Verizon Benefit from XO Communications Transaction? Market Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon Communications (VZ) Stock Rises in Pre-Market Trading on New Network Offer