Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.

Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,622 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 5,263 shares during the quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC boosted 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 valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $40.27. 9,690,760 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,029,590. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.61. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $169.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.61%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at $2,387,576.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company 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).