Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC Sells 1,428 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,051 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,428 shares during the period. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $442,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 58.0% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,756,452 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $78,975,000 after buying an additional 644,761 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $224,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 24.2% in the third quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 6,248 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $281,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217 shares during the last quarter. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 131,700 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $5,915,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Common Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 8.0% in the third quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 241,045 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $10,825,000 after purchasing an additional 17,874 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total value of $453,154.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $47.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised their target price 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. Tigress Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of VZ stock opened at $39.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $167.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.63, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.58 and a one year high of $45.36. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.52. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company earned $1.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 6.80%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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).