Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. were sinking toward their lowest close in more than 13 years amid a selloff in telecommunications names.
Verizon’s stock
VZ,
was off 2.0% in Friday afternoon trading, recently changing hands at $30.54. That would make for the stock’s lowest close since Sept. 8, 2010, when it finished at $30.46.
Verizon’s dividend yield, at 8.69%, is now at a record high.
Friday is the ex-dividend date for Verizon given that settlement takes two days and Verizon’s new quarterly dividend of 66.50 cents a share is payable Nov. 1 to shareholders of record as of Oct. 10.
The stock is headed for its worst weekly performance since the week that ended July 22, 2022. It’s off 5.7% so far this week, while it logged a 12.9% weekly decline during the period in mid-July 2022.
Other telecommunications names were dropping as well, with AT&T Inc.’s stock
T,
off 2.0% and Charter Communications Inc.’s stock
CHTR,
down 0.6%. Those two, along with Verizon shares, were the sole losers in the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR fund
XLC
in midday action.
Outside of the ETF, shares of Dish Network Corp.
DISH,
Altice USA Inc.
ATUS,
and Lumen Technologies Inc.
LUMN,
were among other telecommunications decliners.
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