Kentucky Trust Co Buys New Shares in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Kentucky Trust Co bought a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 26,474 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,081,241 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after purchasing an additional 565,842 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $815,636,000 after purchasing an additional 502,949 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.4% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,493,998 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $561,105,000 after buying an additional 46,100 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

VZ opened at $40.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $170.38 billion, a PE ratio of 9.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.58 and a 12-month high of $45.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (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 firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.46%.

Insider Activity at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. This represents a 43.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications 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).