White Pine Capital LLC Sells 1,334 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

White Pine Capital LLC cut its stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,520 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,334 shares during the quarter. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 351,625,025 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $11,396,167,000 after acquiring an additional 930,367 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,527,387 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 44,621,839 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,446,194,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 28,400,326 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $920,455,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,261,791 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $300,175,000 after acquiring an additional 1,385,957 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verizon Communications

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $979,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2 %

VZ stock traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.68. 18,246,244 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,678,804. The company has a market cap of $166.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.14 and a 52 week high of $43.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.70%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

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).