Western Wealth Management LLC Sells 15,098 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Western Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 121,406 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 15,098 shares during the quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $4,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 173.7% in the third quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $21,137,000 after buying an additional 413,869 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,131,000 after acquiring an additional 1,616 shares during the period. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,677,000 after acquiring an additional 3,020 shares during the period. GFS Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth approximately $212,000. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $306,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of VZ traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $40.31. The stock had a trading volume of 3,150,312 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,508,502. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The firm has a market cap of $169.47 billion, a PE ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $40.54 and its 200 day moving average is $38.18.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The firm 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 for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 96.38%.

Verizon Communications Company 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).