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TheStreet Wire

Dow Today: Verizon Communications (VZ) Lower

By TheStreet Wire 07/20/12 - 01:00 PM EDT

Find out if (VZ) is in Cramer's Portfolio.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading down 112.0 points (-0.9%) at 12,831 as of Friday, Jul 20, 2012, 12:35 p.m. ET. During this time, 382.7 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 680.1 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 833 issues advancing vs. 2,117 declining with 112 unchanged.

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Holding back the Dow today is Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), which is lagging the broader Dow index with an 18-cent decline (-0.4%) bringing the stock to $44.36. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.36 points or roughly accounting for 1.2% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Verizon Communications currently sits at 9.7 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 14.7 million shares.

Verizon Communications has a market cap of $130.37 billion and is part of the technology sector and telecommunications industry. Shares are up 11% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 4.4%.

Verizon Communications Inc. provides communications, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental agencies worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 49.3, above the average telecommunications industry P/E ratio of 48.8 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Verizon Communications as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, increase in net income, good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

You can view the full Verizon Ratings Report.

For more information on Verizon Communications Inc click any of the following:

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