TruWealth Advisors LLC Sells 394 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

TruWealth Advisors LLC reduced its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,281 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 394 shares during the quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $240,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Management Professionals Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 24.3% in the 1st quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,813 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. Benin Management CORP boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Benin Management CORP now owns 7,044 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 23,134 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 22,023.0% in the 1st quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,247 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $873,000 after purchasing an additional 19,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Apella Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 40.5% in the 1st quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 17,571 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,066 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 5,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,550,859.84. The trade was a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 target price (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.5%

Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.87 on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.59 and a 1-year high of $47.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $43.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $33.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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).