D.B. Root & Company LLC Cuts Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

D.B. Root & Company LLC trimmed its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 10.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,834 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,402 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $473,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after acquiring an additional 1,106,887 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after acquiring an additional 565,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $815,636,000 after acquiring an additional 502,949 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of VZ opened at $38.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.96%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

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).