Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, December 21, 2018

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC., $54.92, New York symbol VZ, has 116.5 million wireless users, 12.3 million phone customers and 15.4 million Internet and TV subscribers. Starting with the November 2018 payment, Verizon raised its quarterly dividend by 2.1%. Investors now receive $0.6025 a share instead of $0.59. The new annual rate of $2.41 yields a high 4.4%. To diversify its operations, in 2015 Verizon paid $4.4 billion for AOL. That business operates several popular websites, including The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Engadget. In June 2017, it purchased Internet search site Yahoo for $4.5 billion. Verizon later merged all of its Internet businesses into a new division called Oath. However, Oath is facing strong competition for online advertising revenue from larger firms Google and Facebook. In the 2018 third quarter, Oath’s revenues fell 6.9% to $1.8 billion, and the business is unlikely to hit its target of $10 billion in annual revenue by 2020. As a result, Verizon will write down the value of the Oath division…