Lafayette Investments Inc. Trims Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lessened its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 17.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 19,891 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,200 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $795,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 15.9% during the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 12,244 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,680 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 7,133 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $320,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,327 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $733,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the period. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 758,019 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,850,000 after acquiring an additional 9,846 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chelsea Counsel Co. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 1.3% during the third quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 31,420 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,411,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $633,159.61. This trade represents a 40.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $262,809.20. This represents a 54.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,085 shares of company stock valued at $2,020,895 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus upgraded Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Tigress Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.92.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $44.32 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $186.57 billion, a PE ratio of 10.71, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.02. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.59 and a 1-year high of $47.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.46%.

About Verizon Communications

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).