Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC Sells 19,979 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 105,499 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 19,979 shares during the quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,977,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 29,931 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 3,676 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 169,944 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,407,000 after purchasing an additional 3,043 shares in the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 2,384,159 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $89,883,000 after purchasing an additional 14,589 shares in the last quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC now owns 28,983 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,093,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Syon Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $368,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VZ shares. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:VZ traded up $0.46 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $39.68. 18,245,309 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,159,520. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.51.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 99.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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).