OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC Sells 11,219 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 136,168 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 11,219 shares during the quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,445,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 6,530,138 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $261,142,000 after purchasing an additional 73,597 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,851 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $314,000 after acquiring an additional 2,141 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 741,766 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $29,663,000 after acquiring an additional 117,021 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 251,047 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $10,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thematics Asset Management grew its position in Verizon Communications by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Thematics Asset Management now owns 144,691 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $5,786,000 after purchasing an additional 10,768 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $633,159.61. The trade was a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 49,085 shares of company stock worth $2,020,895. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research cut Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.92.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 2.4 %

NYSE VZ opened at $42.97 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $43.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.99. The company has a market capitalization of $180.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.59 and a 52 week high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.46%.

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).