Montecito Bank & Trust Has $1.60 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Montecito Bank & Trust lowered its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,200 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 2,446 shares during the quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,597,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,759,000 after purchasing an additional 16,704 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 45,192 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,473 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $745,000. Everhart Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 18,853 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $754,000 after acquiring an additional 3,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, bLong Financial LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth about $1,033,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.88, for a total value of $329,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 19,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $834,071.04. The trade was a 28.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on VZ shares. Wolfe Research downgraded Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $42.96 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.26. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $37.59 and a one year high of $47.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.11 billion, a PE ratio of 10.38, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The business had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.31 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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).