Axxcess Wealth Management LLC Has $6.42 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Axxcess Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 7.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,435 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 11,137 shares during the quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $2,300,846,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% during the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $357,398,000 after buying an additional 8,695,736 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 52.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 19,828,378 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $792,937,000 after buying an additional 6,846,514 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 363,824,525 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $14,549,343,000 after buying an additional 5,697,337 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 45,043,310 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,801,282,000 after buying an additional 4,951,733 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total transaction of $396,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 10,008 shares of the company's stock, valued at $441,352.80. This represents a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on VZ. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. Bank of America started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Monday. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research cut Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $47.00.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded down $0.61 during trading on Thursday, hitting $42.00. The stock had a trading volume of 19,329,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,178,878. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market cap of $177.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.00, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a fifty day moving average of $43.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.35. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 13.14%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is 64.52%.

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).