Orrstown Financial Services Inc. Decreases Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Orrstown Financial Services Inc. reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 39.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,899 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 7,164 shares during the period. Orrstown Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 95,796 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 8,012 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 37,748 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,510,000 after purchasing an additional 2,999 shares during the last quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 10,081 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $403,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 6,382 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 186,393 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $7,228,000 after buying an additional 9,042 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have 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. DZ Bank raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.4 %

VZ stock traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $40.56. The company had a trading volume of 1,748,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,217,141. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $170.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.61.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. Analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 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).