Latitude Advisors LLC Has $558,000 Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Latitude Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 14,788 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 282 shares during the period. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of VZ. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,115,932,000 after buying an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 81.3% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,604,493 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $540,193,000 after buying an additional 4,756,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE VZ traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $39.77. 14,016,776 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,262,630. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.16. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on VZ. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).