Verizon Can’t Shake Label as DJIA’s Worst Performing Stock for 2017

Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) added $0.30 over the past week, a gain of just 0.7%, to maintain the company’s ranking as the worst performing stock among the 30 equities that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). For the year to date, Verizon’s shares are down 18.4% while the DJIA is up about 9.5%.

Only seven DJIA stocks are trading in the red for the year and only two, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), are also down by more than 10% this year, with GE down 15.25% and Chevron down 11.27%.

CEO Lowell McAdam scotched talk that Verizon would make an offer for The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). We noted last week that Verizon’s existing debt load of around $112 billion could more than double if it bought Disney.

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Also last week Verizon admitted that personally identifiable data on some 6 million customers had been exposed by a misconfigured cloud-based file repository. The company said that no records were lost or stolen, but according to at least one cybersecurity firm, that doesn’t mean that there is no threat to Verizon’s customers.

Verizon stock closed at $43.56 per share on Friday, up about 0.2% for the day. The stock posted a new 52-week low of $42.80 on Tuesday and the 52-week high is $56.25. The 12-month consensus price target is $49.50. The company’s dividend yield ended the week at 5.31%.

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