Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Price Target to $40.00

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) had its price objective reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $44.00 to $40.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the cell phone carrier’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research raised Verizon Communications from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $46.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded 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 research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.68 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verizon Communications

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Phoenix Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth approximately $1,628,000. Hourglass Capital LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 11.6% in the first quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC now owns 37,730 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,583,000 after purchasing an additional 3,934 shares during the last quarter. Fonville Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the first quarter worth $202,000. Finer Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the first quarter. Finer Wealth Management Inc. now owns 55,407 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,325,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trueblood Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the first quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,656 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $741,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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).