Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Capital Investment Counsel Inc

Capital Investment Counsel Inc trimmed its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,149 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,130 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,778,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after buying an additional 4,527,387 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after buying an additional 2,015,139 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $920,455,000 after purchasing an additional 4,134,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $300,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385,957 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the sale, 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE:VZ traded up $0.91 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $40.59. The company had a trading volume of 3,374,813 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,940,461. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

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).