Sandhill Capital Partners LLC Has $2.83 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sandhill Capital Partners LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 14.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 75,073 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 12,483 shares during the period. Sandhill Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $920,455,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134,150 shares during the period. Comerica Bank bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $133,491,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3,782.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,974,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $149,850,000 after acquiring an additional 3,872,434 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 104.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 5,302,051 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $171,839,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of VZ traded down $0.27 on Thursday, reaching $39.22. 16,589,142 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,183,934. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $164.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.78%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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).