Capital Wealth Planning LLC Sells 154,943 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Capital Wealth Planning LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,940,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 154,943 shares during the quarter. Verizon Communications makes up 2.1% of Capital Wealth Planning LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Capital Wealth Planning LLC owned 0.12% of Verizon Communications worth $186,271,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Savvy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $902,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 7,289 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $275,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 48.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 245,887 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,270,000 after purchasing an additional 79,810 shares during the period. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 60.3% in the fourth quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. now owns 190,874 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $7,196,000 after purchasing an additional 71,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,833 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ traded down $0.22 during trading on Thursday, reaching $40.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,754,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,465,896. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.25. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion for 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%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

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

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).