Key Financial Inc Cuts Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Key Financial Inc cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,469 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 880 shares during the period. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,073,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 130.1% in the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.4% during the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on VZ. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ traded up $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.78. 19,007,299 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,702,611. The company has a market cap of $167.25 billion, a PE ratio of 14.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.41. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.16. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.14 and a 1 year high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 96.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.03% 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).