Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Sells 1,077,260 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 54.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 899,214 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 1,077,260 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $40,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Court Place Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 3.4% during the first quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC now owns 12,178 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $552,000 after buying an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 10.7% during the first quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 38,098 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,728,000 after buying an additional 3,684 shares in the last quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 217.6% during the first quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co. now owns 86,264 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $3,913,000 after buying an additional 59,107 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 87.3% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 4,325 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $185,000 after buying an additional 2,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 7.3% during the first quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 87,816 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $3,983,000 after buying an additional 5,993 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Monday. They set a "neutral" rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI upgraded 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. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Nine 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $47.25.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.41 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $42.65. The company had a trading volume of 23,445,789 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,157,980. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $43.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.33. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.82 billion, a PE ratio of 10.15, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.35%. 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 value of $396,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $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).