Forte Capital LLC ADV Sells 4,720 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Forte Capital LLC ADV trimmed its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 65,100 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,720 shares during the quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $2,603,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.0% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $78,975,000 after acquiring an additional 644,761 shares during the period. Alpha Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter valued at about $224,000. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.8% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,174,541 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $232,389,000 after acquiring an additional 39,403 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 26.0% in the third quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 8,368 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725 shares during the period. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.6% in the third quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 143,487 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,444,000 after purchasing an additional 8,932 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on VZ. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. DZ Bank raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Argus raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $810,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,675 shares in the company, valued at $1,851,664.50. This represents a 30.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.49 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.90 and a 200-day moving average of $41.59. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.58 and a 1 year high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $178.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period last year, the company posted $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 Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 65.46%.

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).