Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 352,600 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 51.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 336,835 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 352,600 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $13,470,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Todd Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 40.0% in the fourth quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 666,461 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $26,652,000 after buying an additional 190,409 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 960,940 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,428,000 after buying an additional 23,405 shares during the period. Exchange Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,451 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 725 shares during the period. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $283,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 5,224 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $43.73 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The stock has a market cap of $184.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.56, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a fifty day moving average of $40.01 and a 200 day moving average of $41.67. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,851,664.50. The trade was a 30.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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).