Stockman Wealth Management Inc. Grows Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Stockman Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 154,859 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,928 shares during the quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $6,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the firm’s 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 trade represents a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Ten 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $39.88 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.53. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.58 and a 12 month high of $45.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.63, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. 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 earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS 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 period last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.80%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

Verizon Communications 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).