Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 28, 2014

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC., $47.56, New York symbol VZ, has completed its purchase of the 45% of Verizon Wireless that it didn’t already own from U.K.-based Vodafone Group (Nasdaq symbol VOD). The company now owns 100% of Verizon Wireless, which sells wireless services to 102.8 million subscribers in the U.S. In 2013, it supplied 67% of Verizon’s revenue and 81% of its earnings. Verizon paid $130 billion in cash and shares for Vodafone’s stake. To put that in context, Verizon’s market cap (or the total value of all its outstanding shares) is $196.7 billion. The stock rose to around $51 just after Verizon announced the deal, but it has since fallen to its current level. That’s largely because many of Vodafone’s U.K. investors held their shares in accounts that don’t allow U.S. stocks. Unless these investors made arrangements to move their new Verizon shares into other accounts, their brokers had to sell them. Meanwhile, Verizon feels that owning 100% of the wireless business will…