Taylor & Morgan Wealth Management LLC Lowers Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Taylor & Morgan Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,878 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 386 shares during the period. Taylor & Morgan Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $515,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 10.4% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 307,514 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $12,682,000 after purchasing an additional 29,082 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 36,830 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,519,000 after purchasing an additional 3,731 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 18.7% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 152,304 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after buying an additional 24,016 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 60.9% in the second quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,272 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,197,000 after buying an additional 20,164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Research & Management Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.4% during the second quarter. Boston Research & Management Inc. now owns 100,241 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,133,000 after buying an additional 1,345 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VZ. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $38.86 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $41.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.69. The firm has a market cap of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

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).