Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 19,734 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 624,745 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 19,734 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $28,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the second quarter worth $32,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.46.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.30 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.46 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.70 and a 200 day moving average of $41.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.41%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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).