Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC Sells 4,399 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 63.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,547 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,399 shares during the period. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $114,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $177,799,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $42.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $177.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.14 and a 1 year 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 50 day simple moving average of $42.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.87.

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

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on VZ. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.46.

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).