Dock Street Asset Management Inc. Sells 403 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Dock Street Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,054 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 403 shares during the quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $11,396,167,000 after purchasing an additional 930,367 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Verizon Communications by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,678,273,000 after acquiring an additional 11,987,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at $1,829,675,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $39.87. 6,595,460 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,544,525. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.54 and its 200-day moving average is $38.17. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The stock has a market cap of $167.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.49, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The company had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

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).