Lido Advisors LLC Sells 13,473 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lido Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 275,129 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 13,473 shares during the quarter. Lido Advisors LLC's holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $11,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.9% in the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 12,244 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $550,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 7,133 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $320,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,327 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 758,019 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $33,850,000 after acquiring an additional 9,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chelsea Counsel Co. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 31,420 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,411,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $212,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,550,859.84. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares of the company's stock, valued at $633,159.61. This represents a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,000 shares of company stock valued at $969,340. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $1.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $44.07. 29,545,042 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,159,775. 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 50-day simple moving average of $43.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company has a market cap of $189.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.15%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is 64.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. 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 report on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.41.

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).