Capital City Trust Co. FL Cuts Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Capital City Trust Co. FL cut its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,343 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 750 shares during the period. Capital City Trust Co. FL’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $254,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VZ. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 69.6% during 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. Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 655.5% during the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. DZ Bank raised Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Tigress Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. This represents a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ stock opened at $42.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company has a market capitalization of $180.05 billion, a PE ratio of 10.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $39.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.61.

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 the consensus estimate 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 company posted $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.34%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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).