Darwin Wealth Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Darwin Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,754 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 387 shares during the period. Darwin Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $133,491,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 3,782.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,974,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $149,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,872,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in Verizon Communications by 104.0% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 2,703,197 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.32 on Thursday, hitting $39.80. The stock had a trading volume of 12,878,403 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,660,254. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $167.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $40.29 and its 200-day moving average is $39.01.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.68%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.25%.

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).