AIFG Consultants Ltd. Has $209,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

AIFG Consultants Ltd. cut its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 21.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,236 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,403 shares during the period. AIFG Consultants Ltd.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $209,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 58.0% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $78,975,000 after purchasing an additional 644,761 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $224,000. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 20,348 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 628 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 15,229 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $684,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Willis Investment Counsel grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.5% in the third quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 679,370 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $30,511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,177 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on VZ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company 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 two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $39.94 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $168.14 billion, a PE ratio of 9.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $40.18 and a 200-day moving average of $41.56.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business posted $1.08 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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).