Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 1,069 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hills Bank & Trust Co decreased its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,570 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,069 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,059,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 283,160 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $11,678,000 after buying an additional 37,732 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,095,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 102,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,592,000 after buying an additional 2,953 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 973,547 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $40,149,000 after buying an additional 53,929 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 164.4% in the 3rd quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 94,339 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,237,000 after buying an additional 58,657 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. KeyCorp cut Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.37.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $178.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.16 and its 200-day moving average is $41.33. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $35.31 and a one year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.41%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).