Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC Sells 4,741 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,184 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,741 shares during the period. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,447,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $177,799,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 184.3% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,428,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $217,087,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $274,052,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656,396 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.6 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.17 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.88, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.64.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.92%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).