Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP Has $1 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 8.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,583 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,582 shares during the quarter. Verizon Communications makes up approximately 1.3% of Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.49. 15,942,031 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,223,914. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company’s 50 day moving average is $40.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $166.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.74%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).