RIA Advisory Group LLC Decreases Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

RIA Advisory Group LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 81.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,658 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 15,611 shares during the quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $138,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after acquiring an additional 78,995,341 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after acquiring an additional 11,987,691 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 81.3% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,604,493 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $540,193,000 after acquiring an additional 4,756,222 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ stock opened at $40.50 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $170.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.24.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

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).