Eagle Bay Advisors LLC Sells 1,568 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,568 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $272,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $177,799,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after buying an additional 2,656,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after buying an additional 2,081,241 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.17 on Monday, hitting $37.98. The company had a trading volume of 7,633,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,960,467. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.29 and a 200-day moving average of $41.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

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).