Cypress Capital Management LLC WY Trims Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Cypress Capital Management LLC WY lessened its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,860 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 410 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $70,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the period. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 320.0% during the 3rd quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total value of $604,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,387,576.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on VZ. Raymond James boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Barclays upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Wolfe Research upgraded Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $40.11. 14,428,696 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,079,908. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a fifty day moving average of $40.46 and a 200-day moving average of $38.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 99.25%.

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).