Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 34.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,765 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 16,447 shares during the quarter. Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987,691 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 175,039,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,509,733,000 after purchasing an additional 8,171,700 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 339,007,286 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $12,607,681,000 after purchasing an additional 5,910,739 shares during the period. 61.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ traded up $0.50 on Monday, hitting $40.87. 14,554,050 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,420,783. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.21. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.21. The firm has a market cap of $171.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.40.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research upgraded Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.86.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company 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).