FineMark National Bank & Trust Sells 3,436 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

FineMark National Bank & Trust lessened its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,348 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 3,436 shares during the quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 303.9% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 49,859,967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,261,648,000 after purchasing an additional 37,516,167 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth $661,720,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 737.5% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,697,003 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $530,576,000 after buying an additional 10,300,369 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 301.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,504,920 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $385,750,000 after buying an additional 6,385,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 31,626,373 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,434,572,000 after acquiring an additional 5,392,416 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VZ. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $41.22 on Thursday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $47.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $173.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.02. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 14.43%.The firm had revenue of $33.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 58.97%.

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).