EP Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 1,456 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 105,400 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,456 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $3,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 27.9% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 7,268 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $236,000 after buying an additional 1,586 shares during the period. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.9% during the third quarter. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. now owns 30,050 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 11.9% during the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 335,280 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $10,866,000 after purchasing an additional 35,774 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the third quarter worth about $15,085,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 17.6% in 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 buying an additional 1,385,957 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Verizon Communications from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.77.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ traded down $0.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $39.67. 10,480,588 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,693,011. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.14 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.87. The company has a market cap of $166.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.42.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.23 billion. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 8.44%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.71%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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).