Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC Sells 5,604 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 30.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,784 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 5,604 shares during the quarter. Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $482,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.37 on Friday, hitting $40.50. 24,693,029 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,784,156. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $40.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.24. 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 company has a market cap of $170.27 billion, a PE ratio of 14.67, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.41.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

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

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).