New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $235.83 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 4.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 5,199,053 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 236,000 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.12% of Verizon Communications worth $235,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $381,000. Meyer Handelman Co. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.4% in the first quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 1,110,948 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $50,393,000 after acquiring an additional 76,083 shares during the period. Rempart Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 52.8% in the first quarter. Rempart Asset Management Inc. now owns 310,390 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $14,079,000 after acquiring an additional 107,200 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 2,075,431 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $82,996,000 after acquiring an additional 20,610 shares during the period. Finally, Welch Group LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.9% in the first quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 1,137,904 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $51,126,000 after acquiring an additional 63,474 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. 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 research note on Monday, April 28th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $47.00 price objective on the stock. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $47.00.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $41.63. 20,156,157 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,246,153. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week high of $47.36. The stock's fifty day moving average is $43.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.38. The company has a market cap of $175.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.51%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

About Verizon Communications

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).