Grimes & Company Inc. Has $10.04 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Grimes & Company Inc. lowered its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 250,971 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 9,871 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $10,036,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081,241 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,581,848,000 after buying an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after buying an additional 565,842 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $815,636,000 after buying an additional 502,949 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46. The company’s 50-day moving average is $40.85 and its 200 day moving average is $41.61.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.85%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VZ shares. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.29.

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).