Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 243,966 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 9,462 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $9,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 130.1% in the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the 3rd quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Citigroup lifted 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, Raymond James raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.04 on Friday, reaching $38.89. 13,195,563 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,003,748. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $40.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.90.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted 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. The business 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%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors 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 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).