Herold Advisors Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Herold Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,730 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,188 shares during the period. Herold Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted 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 in the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3,233.3% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $39.68 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.46 and a 200-day moving average of $38.51. The firm has a market cap of $166.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 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 company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors 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 yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective 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. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 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. Six investment 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, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

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).