Mutual of America Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 507,698 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 14,750 shares during the quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $23,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VZ. Platform Technology Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 31,513 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $1,429,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 1,235,411 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $56,038,000 after acquiring an additional 15,352 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 73,859 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $3,350,000 after acquiring an additional 6,673 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 73,551 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $3,336,000 after acquiring an additional 10,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC now owns 96,303 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $4,368,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Thursday. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $47.00 price objective on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $47.00.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $41.63. The stock had a trading volume of 20,156,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,246,153. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $43.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.38. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week high of $47.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.37.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is presently 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).