Bank OZK Sells 3,456 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bank OZK reduced its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,897 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,456 shares during the period. Bank OZK’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,396,167,000 after purchasing an additional 930,367 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015,139 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $300,175,000 after acquiring an additional 1,385,957 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.68. The company had a trading volume of 18,246,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,678,804. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $166.83 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.51.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Verizon Communications

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).