UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Sells 544 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,384 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 544 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $354,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after purchasing an additional 930,367 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after buying an additional 2,015,139 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $920,455,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.6% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $300,175,000 after buying an additional 1,385,957 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:VZ traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $39.31. 10,759,938 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,836,863. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $40.32 and its 200-day moving average is $38.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.14 and a 12-month high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.25%.

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).