Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 66,887 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cooke & Bieler LP decreased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,831,048 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 66,887 shares during the quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $69,031,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VZ. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the period. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. RVW Wealth LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the third quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. increased its position in Verizon Communications by 58.4% during the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $40.49 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.29. The company has a market cap of $170.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 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 $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 for 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.57%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.38%.

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).