TRUE Private Wealth Advisors Decreases Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

TRUE Private Wealth Advisors trimmed its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 55,673 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,822 shares during the period. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,099,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.4% in the 4th quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.77. 14,016,776 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,262,630. The firm has a market cap of $167.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.41, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.69%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

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).