Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC Has $410,000 Stock Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,253 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,594 shares during the period. Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,936,009 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after buying an additional 4,711,309 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 3rd quarter worth about $177,799,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 184.3% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,428,540 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $217,087,000 after acquiring an additional 3,519,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 77.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,101,616 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $274,052,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,439.20. The trade was a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $40.14 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $168.99 billion, a PE ratio of 9.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $40.44 and a 200-day moving average of $41.54.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.75%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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 target price on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Ten 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.08.

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).