River Street Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

River Street Advisors LLC lowered its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,490 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 506 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $509,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $200,000. Capital Advisors Inc. OK lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 834,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,452,000 after acquiring an additional 193,153 shares in the last quarter. Boothe Investment Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Boothe Investment Group Inc. now owns 18,403 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $694,000 after buying an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth $277,000. Finally, Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $39.72. The company had a trading volume of 21,554,994 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,917,470. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.60 and a 200-day moving average of $38.01. The firm has a market cap of $166.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.39, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released 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 company had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).