Cozad Asset Management Inc. Sells 2,592 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,785 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,592 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $407,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its holdings 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 worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted 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 worth $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted 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 buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target 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. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was 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 approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.19 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $164.96 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.40 and its 200 day moving average is $38.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.79%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).