Payout Boost: Verizon ups dividend

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. $47 (New York symbol VZ, Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 4.1 billion; Market cap: $192.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.verizon.com) has 113.7 million wireless users, 14.2 million landline phone clients and 15.6 million high-speed Internet and TV subscribers. With the November 2016 payment, Verizon increased its quarterly dividend by 2.2%, to $0.5775 a share from $0.565. The new annual rate of $2.31 yields 4.9%. Verizon has now increased its dividend each year for the past 10 years. In the past year, dividends accounted for 78.8% of its free cash flow (cash flow less capital expenditures). Verizon is a buy. buy…