Highland Capital Management LLC Sells 7,910 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Highland Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 140,501 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 7,910 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ossiam lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 658.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ossiam now owns 1,361,200 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $50,623,000 after buying an additional 1,181,766 shares during the period. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 173.7% during the 3rd quarter. Portland Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 652,169 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $21,137,000 after buying an additional 413,869 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 127,632 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,131,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the period. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,757 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,677,000 after purchasing an additional 3,020 shares during the period. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $306,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on VZ. KeyCorp raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.86.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $41.54 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $40.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.31. The company has a market cap of $174.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.08. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 96.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,387,576.33. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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).