Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,109 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 655 shares during the quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $776,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 105,976 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,807,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. First National Corp MA ADV raised its position in Verizon Communications by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Corp MA ADV now owns 9,598 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the last quarter. Verum Partners LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Verum Partners LLC now owns 15,303 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $694,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Ehrlich Financial Group purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter valued at $243,000. Finally, Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. now owns 13,503 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,424 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on VZ shares. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.88, for a total transaction of $329,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 19,008 shares in the company, valued at $834,071.04. This represents a 28.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

NYSE:VZ opened at $43.82 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $184.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. 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’s 50-day moving average is $43.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.28. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.59 and a 12-month high of $47.36.

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

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.18%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

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).