Foster & Motley Inc. Sells 9,694 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Foster & Motley Inc. cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 133,059 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 9,694 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,396,167,000 after buying an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after purchasing an additional 2,015,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after buying an additional 4,134,150 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.6% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $300,175,000 after buying an additional 1,385,957 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $1.89 on Monday, hitting $38.60. The company had a trading volume of 49,994,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,193,115. The stock has a market capitalization of $162.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $40.56 and a 200-day moving average of $38.33.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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).