Company Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon Wireless to pay $1.35 million fine to settle U.S. privacy probe

[Reuters] – Verizon Communications Inc will pay a $1.35 million fine and agreed to a three-year consent decree after the Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it found the company’s wireless unit violated the privacy of its users. Verizon Wireless agreed to get consumer consent before sending data about “supercookies” from its more than 100 million users, under a settlement. Supercookies are unique, undeletable identifiers inserted into web traffic to identify customers in order to deliver targeted ads from Verizon and others. Read more on this. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) , with a current market cap of $212.45B, began trading this morning at $51.53. During today’s session, VZ traded between $51.40 to $52.35 with a trailing 52-week range being $38.06 to $52.35. Priced at 12.98x this year’s forecasted earnings, VZ shares are relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 14.26x forward p/e ratio. The company pays shareholders $2.26 per share in dividend income per year, for a current yield of 4.36%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 23 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. In looking at the bigger picture, the full-year EPS estimate of $3.99 would be a $0.00 setback when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $32.81 Billion. If reported, that would be a 2.60% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Deutsche Bank Initiated VZ at Hold (Feb 24, 2016). Previously, DA Davidson Initiated VZ at to Neutral. When considering if the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $50.33, which is 2.33% below where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:VZ) Similar Articles: Company Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon customers in South Carolina are the real winners in newest RootMetrics® wireless network performance report Market Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – $70 million network investment has the Verizon Wireless network ready to serve fans at most connected Super Bowl ever Company Update: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) – Verizon wireless and TV help increase profits, revenue in Q3