Lincoln National Corp Has $5.46 Million Stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Lincoln National Corp reduced its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 144,835 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 32,488 shares during the quarter. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,460,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 627.8% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 655 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 130.1% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 863 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 320.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VZ shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on Verizon Communications from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,200.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2 %

Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $39.34. 13,346,228 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,931,412. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.14 and a 12 month high of $43.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $165.59 billion, a PE ratio of 14.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.95.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 99.25%.

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).