Montag A & Associates Inc. Sells 5,293 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Montag A & Associates Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 74,537 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 5,293 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 130.1% in the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the 3rd quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VZ. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

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

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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).