United Asset Strategies Inc. Sells 68,659 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

United Asset Strategies Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 82.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,226 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 68,659 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $536,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the period. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 130.1% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the 3rd quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. lifted its stake in 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 worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $167.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.17. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.69%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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).