OLD Second National Bank of Aurora Cuts Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

OLD Second National Bank of Aurora cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 30,651 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,281 shares during the quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its position in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 130.1% in the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 320.0% in the third quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 1,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 58.4% in the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,096 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verizon Communications

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on VZ shares. Barclays boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VZ traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $40.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,282,985 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,514,658. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.14 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $168.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.08. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The business had revenue of $35.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 96.38%.

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).