Sovereign Financial Group Inc. Has $306,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 44.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,113 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 6,514 shares during the period. Sovereign Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,152,461 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $36,856,000 after buying an additional 153,485 shares during the period. Baystate Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $431,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares during the period. Cambridge Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.0% during the third quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 43,139 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,398,000 after buying an additional 1,641 shares during the period. Washington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth about $521,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.6% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,827,584 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $59,234,000 after buying an additional 246,475 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VZ. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ traded down $0.02 on Tuesday, reaching $39.31. The stock had a trading volume of 10,759,940 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,841,270. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $165.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.01.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.77%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Company 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).