Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Bellevue Asset Management LLC

Bellevue Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 17.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,367 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 505 shares during the period. Bellevue Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $89,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. WealthTrust Axiom LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 118,806 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,479,000 after acquiring an additional 2,422 shares during the last quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 173.7% during the 3rd quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $21,137,000 after purchasing an additional 413,869 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616 shares in the last quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,677,000 after buying an additional 3,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GFS Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. 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 research report on Thursday, January 25th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of 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. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $38.89. The stock had a trading volume of 13,195,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,003,748. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.14 and a twelve month high of $43.42. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.79.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.84%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

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).