Annex Advisory Services LLC Sells 6,195 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Annex Advisory Services LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 125,510 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 6,195 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,019,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 444,460 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $18,330,000 after purchasing an additional 39,870 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.6% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 48,264 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,990,000 after acquiring an additional 3,412 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 9.1% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 679,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $28,020,000 after acquiring an additional 56,534 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 16,246.1% in the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 93,990 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,876,000 after purchasing an additional 93,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 29,857 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,792 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $38.86 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $41.03 and a 200 day moving average of $41.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The firm has a market cap of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).