Callan Capital LLC Grows Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Callan Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,676 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 1,180 shares during the period. Callan Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Redmond Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 34.2% during the fourth quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 49,378 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after buying an additional 12,595 shares during the last quarter. Winebrenner Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $625,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. now owns 30,344 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after buying an additional 6,756 shares during the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,810 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $552,000 after buying an additional 877 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bell Bank boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 184,683 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $7,385,000 after buying an additional 27,952 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares in the company, valued at $596,439.20. This trade represents a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on VZ. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Ten investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.08.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $42.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $39.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.62. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a market cap of $180.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.33, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.34%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 65.46%.

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).