Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Altshuler Shaham Ltd

Altshuler Shaham Ltd lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 89.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,089 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 9,319 shares during the quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $41,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after acquiring an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $300,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385,957 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group increased 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. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.17 during mid-day 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 50 day simple moving average is $40.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.01. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.18 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly 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 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 the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.74%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by 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).