Occidental Asset Management LLC Lowers Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Occidental Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 13.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,104 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,150 shares during the period. Occidental Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 35,253 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,479,000 after acquiring an additional 4,317 shares in the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 55,259 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426 shares in the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 43.8% during the 1st quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 54,494 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,287,000 after acquiring an additional 16,603 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,992,753 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $83,740,000 after acquiring an additional 22,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter worth $84,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $41.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $173.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39, a PEG ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.14 and a fifty-two week high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.25%.

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).