Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc. Sells 8,121 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc. trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 94,529 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 8,121 shares during the period. Verizon Communications comprises 2.2% of Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 632,214 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,282,000 after buying an additional 5,958 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 386,661 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $15,463,000 after acquiring an additional 13,242 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 78,026 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 25,583 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 6,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crescent Sterling Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Sterling Ltd. now owns 30,671 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.12 during trading on Monday, reaching $37.93. The company had a trading volume of 8,342,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,072,162. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.80. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week 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 firm has a market capitalization of $159.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given 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 7.14%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).