Court Place Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Court Place Advisors LLC cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,774 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,015 shares during the quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the 3rd quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 655.5% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth $44,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.44.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ opened at $40.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.62. The stock has a market cap of $171.08 billion, a PE ratio of 17.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).