SFG Wealth Management LLC. Sells 297 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

SFG Wealth Management LLC. lowered its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,873 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 297 shares during the period. SFG Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $395,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baugh & Associates LLC lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Baugh & Associates LLC now owns 128,066 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,939,000 after buying an additional 5,651 shares during the period. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 33.5% in the 4th quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 15,987 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $612,000 after acquiring an additional 4,014 shares in the last quarter. True Link Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $218,000. Strong Tower Advisory Services boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 47,643 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,905,000 after acquiring an additional 4,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Management Partners LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Management Partners LLC now owns 10,666 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $38.86 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $41.03 and its 200 day moving average is $41.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications 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).