26,461 Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Acquired by Golden State Wealth Management LLC

Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 26,461 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,058,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 137.6% during the third quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 69.6% in the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 780 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 655.5% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on VZ. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.95 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.16 billion, a PE ratio of 9.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its 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 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 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.78%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is presently 65.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at $596,439.20. This represents a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995 in the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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).