Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Mathes Company Inc.

Mathes Company Inc. lowered its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 62.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 15,150 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 24,800 shares during the quarter. Mathes Company Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after acquiring an additional 565,842 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $815,636,000 after acquiring an additional 502,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,493,998 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $561,105,000 after purchasing an additional 46,100 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,439.20. This represents a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of VZ opened at $41.00 on Monday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.90, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $39.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.57.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.61%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

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).