Capital Investment Counsel Inc Has $1.78 Million Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc lessened its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 47,149 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,130 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,778,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of 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. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $133,491,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,782.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,974,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $149,850,000 after buying an additional 3,872,434 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 5,302,051 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $171,839,000 after buying an additional 2,703,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on VZ shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded up $0.91 on Monday, hitting $40.59. The company had a trading volume of 3,374,813 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,940,461. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The stock has a market cap of $170.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.55%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.25%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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).