Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. Sells 1,530 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,123 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,530 shares during the quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,342,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th 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. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on VZ. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.41 on Monday, reaching $40.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 19,437,703 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,153,164. The company has a market capitalization of $168.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.64%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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).