Hyman Charles D Sells 33,972 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hyman Charles D lowered its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 408,505 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 33,972 shares during the quarter. Hyman Charles D’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $15,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Everpar Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at $1,013,000. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 89.5% in the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 20,785 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $864,000 after purchasing an additional 9,818 shares in the last quarter. ShoreHaven Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. ShoreHaven Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,774 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 676 shares during the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $316,000. Finally, Simmons Bank raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 156,519 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,901,000 after buying an additional 1,347 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ stock traded up $0.17 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,079,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,741,629. The company’s fifty day moving average is $40.30 and its 200-day moving average is $39.01. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The company has a market capitalization of $166.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research 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 was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.74%. 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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).