Private Trust Co. NA Sells 767 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Private Trust Co. NA cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 84,068 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 767 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $354,000. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 57.0% during the first quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,210 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $680,000 after purchasing an additional 5,884 shares in the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 59.8% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 37,433 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,571,000 after purchasing an additional 14,012 shares in the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the first quarter valued at about $860,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,453,075 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $144,875,000 after buying an additional 1,080,244 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $43.61 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $183.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.43. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.46 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.22%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

Verizon Communications 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).