Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC cut its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 19.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,092 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 8,971 shares during the period. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,483,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,081,241 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after purchasing an additional 565,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $815,636,000 after purchasing an additional 502,949 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VZ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $38.17 on Thursday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $160.68 billion, a PE ratio of 16.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a 50-day moving average of $41.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.76.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.10%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).