OREANDA-NEWS.  March 11, 2014. The Board of Directors of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today declared a quarterly dividend of 53 cents per outstanding share, unchanged from the previous quarter. The dividend is payable on May 1, 2014, to Verizon Communications shareowners of record at the close of business on April 10, 2014.

Verizon has approximately 4.1 billion shares of common stock outstanding. The company made USD 5.9 billion in cash dividend payments in 2013.

Also today, Verizon’s Board authorized the corporation to repurchase up to 100 million shares of its common stock. Under the previous program, which terminated on Feb. 28, 2014, Verizon purchased 3.5 million shares. The new program – which is for the same number of shares and the same three-year duration as the recently expired authorization – will terminate when the aggregate number of shares reaches 100 million or at the close of business on Feb. 28, 2017, whichever is sooner.