Stock Update (NYSE:VZ): Voting now open: Help students win $15,000 and the chance to bring their app ideas to life in the Verizon Innovative App Challenge

[PR Newswire] – NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Today voting begins for the App Challenge Fan Favorite award in the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, a nationwide app ideation contest for middle school and high school students. The Fan Favorite award is new to the four-year-old App Challenge, and allows the public to choose a national winner in addition to those chosen by the judges. Ninety-two student teams were named Best in State winners by a panel of judges assembled by the Technology Student Association, which included educators and industry experts. Read more on this. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) , currently valued at $182.33B, opened this morning at $45.10. Shares have traded today between $44.60 and $45.17 per share with the price of the stock fluctuating between $38.06 to $50.86 over the last 52 weeks. Priced at 11.29x this year’s forecasted earnings, VZ shares are relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 23.45x forward p/e ratio. And for passive income investors, the company pays shareholders $2.26 per share annually in dividends, yielding 4.89%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 26 sell-side analysts are looking at $0.88 per share, which would be $0.17 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.00 sequential decrease. Investors should also note that the full-year EPS estimate of $3.97 is a $0.62 better when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $34.08 Billion. If realized, that would be a 2.68% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Buckingham Research Initiated VZ at Neutral (Jul 2, 2015). Previously, JP Morgan downgraded VZ from Overweight to Neutral. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $50.33, which is 11.60% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:VZ) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon strike possible as contract deadline looms Stock Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon Second-Half Spending Spree Could Be Huge for 3 Stocks Market Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon and VICE Partner to Bring Youth Brand’s Award-Winning Content to Verizon’s Mobile Video Offering