Royal Fund Management LLC Sells 2,508 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Royal Fund Management LLC decreased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,056 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,508 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacifica Partners Inc. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 5,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $223,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 9,511 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $374,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,293 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 10,961 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $413,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Western Financial Corp CA lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 16,564 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $624,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on VZ shares. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

VZ stock traded down $0.04 on Friday, reaching $38.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,195,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,003,748. The firm has a market cap of $163.70 billion, a PE ratio of 14.51, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.79. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced 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. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.84%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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).