DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Cuts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 9.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 722,559 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned about 0.15% of Verizon Communications worth $296,958,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 81.0% during the 1st quarter. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. now owns 543 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 71.8% in the 1st quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 584 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the period. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 114.6% in the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Monday. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $45.00 price objective on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned 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 $47.25.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $42.94. The company had a trading volume of 2,590,423 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,104,826. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.33. The stock has a market cap of $181.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.23, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.37. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $47.35.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 10,008 shares of the company's stock, valued at $441,352.80. The trade was a 47.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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).

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