William Allan Corp Buys 570 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

William Allan Corp lifted its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,468 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the quarter. William Allan Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its position in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 655.5% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.95 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $168.16 billion, a PE ratio of 9.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.36 and its 200 day moving average is $41.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $810,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,675 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,851,664.50. This represents a 30.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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).