Ironwood Wealth Management Inc. Sells 565 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Ironwood Wealth Management Inc. decreased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 37.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 936 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 565 shares during the period. Verizon Communications accounts for about 0.0% of Ironwood Wealth Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Ironwood Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $35,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 137.6% in the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 69.6% during the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 655.5% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.41 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.88 billion, a PE ratio of 9.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.57.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 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. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.88%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).