Sowa Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Sowa Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,894 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 923 shares during the period. Verizon Communications makes up about 0.3% of Sowa Financial Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Sowa Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $436,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Profund Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 48,264 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,990,000 after purchasing an additional 3,412 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.1% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 679,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $28,020,000 after buying an additional 56,534 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,077 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $651,000 after buying an additional 2,517 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,334,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 74.5% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 162,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,698,000 after acquiring an additional 69,328 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.4 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $38.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The business’s fifty day moving average is $41.03 and its 200 day moving average is $41.70. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 116.81%.

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).