Simon Quick Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 24,323 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 5,172 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $973,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Red Spruce Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC now owns 84,640 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,385,000 after acquiring an additional 965 shares during the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 13,984 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 122,240 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,667,000 after purchasing an additional 4,588 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 1,756,413 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $70,239,000 after acquiring an additional 261,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 49,059 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,962,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:VZ opened at $38.95 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.66. The company has a market cap of $163.97 billion, a PE ratio of 16.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).