Kanawha Capital Management LLC Sells 348 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Kanawha Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 219,868 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 348 shares during the quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $8,793,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 222,366 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $8,892,000 after purchasing an additional 48,294 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $3,376,000. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 202,521 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $9,095,000 after acquiring an additional 17,855 shares during the period. Burney Co. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 186,621 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $7,463,000 after acquiring an additional 43,472 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1,934.5% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,080,015 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $48,503,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,930 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VZ. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Tigress Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $810,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,851,664.50. This represents a 30.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

VZ stock opened at $41.06 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.56.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.46%.

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).