Investment Advisory Group LLC Cuts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Investment Advisory Group LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 771 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 58.4% in the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $39.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,464,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,587,906. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.58 and a 200-day moving average of $38.10. The stock has a market cap of $167.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 96.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on VZ. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).