Proquility Private Wealth Partners LLC Has $658,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Proquility Private Wealth Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 50.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,465 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 16,518 shares during the period. Proquility Private Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $658,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 122,240 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,667,000 after acquiring an additional 4,588 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 1,756,413 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $70,239,000 after purchasing an additional 261,401 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 49,059 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,962,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $220,000. Finally, LifePlan Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. LifePlan Financial LLC now owns 23,666 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 894 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $39.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $164.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.58 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.68.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.81%.

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).