Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc.

Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. decreased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 265,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 14,538 shares during the period. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $10,615,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 6,148 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 323,171 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,924,000 after purchasing an additional 36,710 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 290,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,634,000 after purchasing an additional 15,000 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 105,664 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spring Capital Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Spring Capital Management LLC now owns 83,241 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,329,000 after purchasing an additional 2,535 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of VZ opened at $38.86 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $41.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.71. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).