Jacobs & Co. CA Sells 59,691 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Jacobs & Co. CA decreased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 41.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 82,935 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 59,691 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,126,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after purchasing an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 1.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 339,007,286 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $12,607,681,000 after purchasing an additional 5,910,739 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 175,039,883 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $6,509,733,000 after purchasing an additional 8,171,700 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,115,932,000 after purchasing an additional 78,995,341 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on VZ shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.86.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.7 %

Verizon Communications stock opened at $41.54 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $174.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.31. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.71% and a net margin of 8.67%. The company had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.40%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 96.38%.

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).