Heritage Trust Co Acquires Shares of 14,374 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Heritage Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 14,374 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $575,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total transaction of $437,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $633,159.61. This trade represents a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total value of $319,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $262,809.20. This represents a 54.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 49,085 shares of company stock worth $2,020,895. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.8 %

VZ stock opened at $43.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.59 and a fifty-two week high of $47.36. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.04. The company has a market cap of $183.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.20%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 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).