Sculati Wealth Management LLC Sells 1,978 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sculati Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 39,451 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,978 shares during the quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,655,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $177,799,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 77.1% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $42.00 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.46 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The company has a market cap of $176.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.10, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.44. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.85.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VZ. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.46.

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).