Fifth Third Bancorp Cuts Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Fifth Third Bancorp lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 462,220 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 23,877 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $18,484,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 762.6% in the third quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,061 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eleven investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.29.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $39.54 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.61. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $166.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. 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).